Its heavy exposure to all the hard-hit economies in East Asia, particularly Thailand and South Korea, left bankers and investors worried about its creditworthiness.

ECONOMIST: Peregrine: hawk turned prey

This is particularly alarming for Thailand, which grew at a reasonable 4.6% last year on the back of a consumer boom.

ECONOMIST: The region assesses the costs

The killing follows warnings last year from conservation groups that elephants were being slaughtered in Africa at an alarming rate to feed demand for ivory from increasingly affluent Asian countries, particularly China and Thailand.

CNN: SHARE THIS

And, unlike its neighbours, Thailand is particularly handicapped by an almost complete absence of the mastery of foreign languages.

ECONOMIST: How much should you bet on Thailand?

But along the way he also provides a good sketch of the similarities and differences among the region's diverse economies, focusing particularly on the events in Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia as their currencies plunged and the banking systems seized up.

ECONOMIST: Rise.Fall.Rise?

This will be particularly true after the component shortages from the Thailand floods have been alleviated later in 2012.

FORBES: More Storage Means More Disks

Indonesia faces, in a particularly vicious form, a downward spiral seen in Thailand and, to a lesser extent, Malaysia.

ECONOMIST: The hopes for recovery fade

That said, signs of life are showing up lately, particularly among the most problematic economies of 1997-98--Thailand (market up 26% to date this year), Korea (22%) and Indonesia (39%).

FORBES: Magazine Article

Thailand is an attractive destination for overseas investment, and foreign companies, particularly Japanese ones fleeing a strong yen, have been badly disrupted.

ECONOMIST: Thailand��s floods