The Thai baht crisis triggered Thailand’s stock-market collapse at the start of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
On July 2, 1997, Thailand abandoned its effort to maintain the baht’s fixed exchange-rate arrangement and allowed the currency to float. The baht then lost substantial value, exposing weaknesses in corporate borrowing, banking, property markets, and foreign-currency debt.
Financial stress spread across East and Southeast Asia. Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, and other economies experienced currency depreciation, falling share prices, banking problems, and severe economic contraction. International rescue programs and domestic reforms followed in several affected countries.
The crisis is sometimes described simply as a stock-market crash, but its central mechanism involved currencies, debt, banks, and confidence moving together. The Thai baht was the initial flashpoint, while the Indonesian rupiah and South Korean won became important later episodes within the broader regional crisis.