What was the nickname for the 1997 collapse of Thailand’s currency and the ensuing Asian market crisis?

The 1997 collapse of Thailand’s currency and the ensuing Asian market crisis was nicknamed the Tom Yum Kung crisis.

The name refers to tom yum kung, a spicy Thai shrimp soup. It became a popular Thai metaphor for a crisis that began domestically but spread throughout the region. On July 2, 1997, Thailand abandoned its baht peg to the U.S. dollar after intense speculative pressure exhausted its foreign-exchange reserves.

The baht then depreciated sharply, damaging companies and banks that had borrowed in dollars. Investor confidence weakened across East and Southeast Asia, affecting Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and other markets. Falling currencies, collapsing property prices, corporate defaults, and stock-market losses reinforced one another.

The International Monetary Fund provided major assistance packages, including a large program for South Korea. The crisis was not simply a stock-market event: fragile banking systems, excessive foreign-currency borrowing, fixed exchange rates, and rapid capital flows all played important roles.