After a year and a half of enduring the Covid-19 pandemic together, countries are separating into two groups. Moreover, the radical monetary and fiscal policies employed to combat first, the global financial crisis, and now, the pandemic, will, we believe, almost certainly spark off financial disturbances of some kind over time. So, a key question is: Will we see reforms to overcome failings in the countries where the pandemic had severe consequences? One reason why the economic resilience of Southeast Asia has improved so much since the Asian financial crisis is the thorough-going reforms in the financial sector and in macro-economic policies that followed that crisis. Also, in the years leading to this pandemic, governments across the region were already showing a keenness to push reforms.

Source: The Edge Markets July 13, 2021 03:22 UTC