Drawing Lessons

Abstract

This monograph has focussed on issues relating to crisis, competitiveness, and fiscal sustainability in three sets of countries, namely, the Nordics, GIPSIs, and Asia. All three sets of countries have been faced with crises at different stages. While the ongoing Eurozone crisis — which has been concentrated in the GIPSI economies — remains fresh in everyone’s minds, the Nordics (Finland, Norway, and Sweden) faced banking crises in the early 1990s and were also impacted by the Eurozone crisis. Similarly, much of East Asia faced the Asian financial and economic crisis in 1997–98 but also experienced short and sharp downturns following the global financial crisis following the Lehman Brothers collapse (Rajan 2009).¹ While the proximate causes, types, and impacts of the crises have varied, it is still possible to draw some lessons from the various crisis episodes. To that end, we discuss a set of ten broad but important lessons.