Which 1997 crisis began with Thailand's baht devaluation and triggered stock-market collapses across East Asia?

The 1997 Asian financial crisis began when Thailand devalued the baht and spread through East Asian financial and stock markets.

Thailand abandoned the baht's dollar peg on 2 July 1997 after intense speculative pressure depleted foreign-exchange reserves. Investors then questioned other economies with large foreign-currency debts, property bubbles or fixed exchange rates. Stock markets in Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Hong Kong suffered severe losses, while currencies also depreciated sharply.

The crisis was not limited to stock exchanges: banks and corporations faced defaults, and several countries accepted International Monetary Fund assistance. Japan was affected, although its long stagnation had begun earlier. The episode is sometimes called the Asian currency crisis, but the term Asian financial crisis better captures the banking, corporate and market dimensions.