Rising Asian debt levels set alarm bells ringing again

Tokyo

IT is one of those grim ironies of fate that the 20th anniversary of the 1997 Asian financial crisis should come at a time when concerns about levels of debt in Asia and other parts of the emerging market universe are again elevated. It is both ironic and instructive.

The 1997 crisis, which began in Thailand early in July that year and spread quickly to engulf Indonesia, South Korea and other parts of the region, was essentially a debt crisis. And much of that debt was located in the corporate sectors of the countries concerned.

Likewise, the growing concern now among policymakers and economists (in both the public and private sectors) is that emerging…