The Thai baht was devalued on July 2, 1997, helping trigger the Asian financial crisis.
Thailand had maintained a managed exchange rate, but pressure on its foreign-exchange reserves made that policy increasingly difficult to defend. The baht was allowed to float and quickly lost value.
Financial stress spread across the region. Indonesia, South Korea, and Malaysia experienced severe currency, banking, and stock-market problems, while investors reassessed risks associated with foreign-currency borrowing and highly leveraged companies.
The crisis was not simply a stock-market event: exchange-rate collapses, corporate debt, bank failures, and emergency international lending were closely connected. The International Monetary Fund arranged major assistance programs, including one for Thailand. A common mix-up is identifying the Indonesian rupiah as the trigger; it was heavily affected later.