What crisis began after Thailand devalued the baht in July 1997 and triggered regional market crashes?

The crisis that began after Thailand devalued the baht in July 1997 was the Asian financial crisis.

Thailand abandoned its fixed exchange-rate arrangement on July 2, 1997, allowing the baht to fall sharply. Investors then questioned the currencies, banks, companies, and property markets of other rapidly growing East and Southeast Asian economies. Capital fled several markets, causing currency collapses and severe stock-market declines.

Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines were among the countries hit particularly hard, although the effects differed from country to country. Many borrowers had accumulated large amounts of foreign-currency debt, making devaluation especially damaging because repayment costs rose in local-currency terms.

The International Monetary Fund arranged major assistance programs, including packages for Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea. Russia later experienced a separate crisis in 1998, and Brazil faced pressure afterward; these events are related through global financial contagion but are not the original Asian financial crisis.