2007年VOA标准英语-Ten Years Later, Asian Economies Remember, Lear

By Heda Bayron
Hong Kong
03 July 2007
 

Ten years ago, an unprecedented¹ financial crisis swept through East Asia requiring the biggest country bailouts in history. VOA's Heda Bayron in Hong Kong looks back at the turbulence³ that began in July of 1997 and how Asia emerged from the crisis.

Raden Pardede

Along with much of the rest of Asia, in 1997, Indonesia suddenly spiraled into recession. Companies closed down, and workers lost their jobs.

Raden Pardede remembers those days. He is the deputy president director of the Indonesian government agency responsible for selling the assets of those bankrupt companies. "That's basically one of the biggest crises in our lifetime, because after that, I think in 1998, our economy really significantly collapsed⁴, which in terms of GDP growth we had a 13.5 percent negative growth. So the world collapsed.  After that, of course, most of the conglomerates⁵ collapsed, right? That's why we had significant unemployment soon after 1998. The middle and lower income groups really suffered."

The Asian financial crisis was almost unthinkable at the time. Asian economies were soaring. Companies were expanding aggressively, stock markets skyrocketing, fueled by foreign capital.

But the bubble burst, first in Thailand, where companies had overloaded⁶ on foreign debt. Worried investors⁷ began selling the Thai baht and it rapidly lost value against the dollar.

Panic spread. The Indonesian rupiah, the South Korean won, the Malaysian ringgit and other currencies sank. Stock markets plunged⁸ and interest rates soared.

Governments used up foreign exchange reserves to stop the currency depreciation⁹, lent money to cash-strapped companies and bought shares in stock markets. But the crisis continued and millions were jobless.

Indonesia and South Korea asked the International Monetary¹⁰ Fund to bail² them out.

Park Yung-chul

Park Yung-chul, an economist¹¹ at Seoul National University, says the bailout was a blow to South Korea. "People's first reaction at that time was shame. We were the 11th largest economy in the world. Big South Korean companies were investing everywhere -- in England, U.S., Europe."

Today, not only has Asia recovered from the crisis, it has learned the lessons of 1997.

"We have reconstructed much of the South Korean economy and the exchange rate is being properly valuated rather than undervalued and we possess a lot of foreign exchange reserve, which makes it less possible for foreign speculators to confuse the market," says Yung-Chul

Raden Pardede says, if another crisis comes, Indonesia is in a much stronger position than in 1997. "We may see some crisis coming. We don't know exactly when, any trigger from one country to another country, contagion¹² is of course inevitable¹³ in this globalization era. But I think the magnitude will not be the same as what we have in 1997."

Asian governments continue to take measures to strengthen their economies and, they hope, to prevent another crisis.

1 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

2 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

3 turbulence   

n.喧嚣，狂暴，骚乱，湍流

参考例句：

• The turbulence caused the plane to turn over.空气的激流导致飞机翻转。
• The world advances amidst turbulence.世界在动荡中前进。

4 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

5 conglomerates   

n.（多种经营的）联合大企业( conglomerate的名词复数 )；砾岩；合成物；组合物

参考例句：

• At the surface, radioactivity of the conglomerates is locally as high as 30 X background. 在地表，砾岩的局部地段的放射性高达30倍本底值。 来自辞典例句
• The conglomerates failed to understand that books could not be sold like soap. 这些联合大企业不懂卖书不象卖肥皂那样。 来自辞典例句

6 overloaded   

a.超载的，超负荷的

参考例句：

• He's overloaded with responsibilities. 他担负的责任过多。
• She has overloaded her schedule with work, study, and family responsibilities. 她的日程表上排满了工作、学习、家务等，使自己负担过重。

7 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

8 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

9 depreciation   

n.价值低落，贬值，蔑视，贬低

参考例句：

• She can't bear the depreciation of the enemy.她受不了敌人的蹂躏。
• They wrote off 500 for depreciation of machinery.他们注销了500镑作为机器折旧费。

10 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

11 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

12 contagion   

n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延

参考例句：

• A contagion of fear swept through the crowd.一种恐惧感在人群中迅速蔓延开。
• The product contagion effect has numerous implications for marketing managers and retailers.产品传染效应对市场营销管理者和零售商都有很多的启示。

13 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。