The Roaring Tigers and the Asian Miracle
The Roaring Tigers and the Asian Miracle
Until a few years ago one could not open the pages of a public affairs magazine without running into a commentary claiming for example that ¡®Asian countries have developed a new and superior form of capitalism that is beating the pants off Western, free market economies¡¯ (Altfest, 1998). Between 1965 and 1990 the economy of East Asia grew faster than all other regions of the world, roughly three times as fast as other developing regions and twenty-five times faster than Sub-Saharan Africa. The export performance of these East Asia economies has been particularly dramatic, with their share of world exports of manufactures leaping from 9 per cent in 1965 to 21 per cent in 1990, thus significantly outperforming the industrial economies and the oil-rich Middle East-North Africa region (World Bank, 1993). Most of this achievement was attributable to six economies: Japan, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and China; and the three newly industrializing economies of South East Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Real income per capita also increased more than four times in Japan and the Four Tigers (Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan), and more than doubled in the South East Asian newly industrialized economies. Annual GDP growth in the ASEAN Five (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) averaged close to 8 per cent over the last decade. Indeed, during the thirty years preceding the crisis per capita income levels had increased tenfold in Korea, fivefold in Thailand, and fourfold in Malaysia (Yellen, 1998). Human welfare also improved dramatically. In South Korea and Singapore, for example, real per capita income grew more than 700 per cent between 1965 and 1995. Over the same period Taiwan and Hong Kong logged increases of more than 400 per cent, while Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia each experienced real per capita income growth of over 300 per cent. South Korea
Until a few years ago one could not open the pages of a public affairs magazine without running into a commentary claiming for example that ¡®Asian countries have developed a new and superior form of capitalism that is beating the pants off Western, free market economies¡¯ (Altfest, 1998). Between 1965 and 1990 the economy of East Asia grew faster than all other regions of the world, roughly three times as fast as other developing regions and twenty-five times faster than Sub-Saharan Africa. The export performance of these East Asia economies has been particularly dramatic, with their share of world exports of manufactures leaping from 9 per cent in 1965 to 21 per cent in 1990, thus significantly outperforming the industrial economies and the oil-rich Middle East-North Africa region (World Bank, 1993). Most of this achievement was attributable to six economies: Japan, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and China; and the three newly industrializing economies of South East Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Real income per capita also increased more than four times in Japan and the Four Tigers (Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan), and more than doubled in the South East Asian newly industrialized economies. Annual GDP growth in the ASEAN Five (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) averaged close to 8 per cent over the last decade. Indeed, during the thirty years preceding the crisis per capita income levels had increased tenfold in Korea, fivefold in Thailand, and fourfold in Malaysia (Yellen, 1998). Human welfare also improved dramatically. In South Korea and Singapore, for example, real per capita income grew more than 700 per cent between 1965 and 1995. Over the same period Taiwan and Hong Kong logged increases of more than 400 per cent, while Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia each experienced real per capita income growth of over 300 per cent. South Korea