■ First, if a depreciation of the exchange rate so easily protects us from the fall in Asian incomes,
why were the industrial countries so worried in 1998, and why did some even start to ease monetary policy?
■ Second, the model says that the French franc depreciates and, hence, Asian currencies appreciate.
In fact, exactly the opposite happened. As Figure 3 shows, all major Asian currencies depreciated substantially in 1997
and 1998: Indonesia’s rupiah by more than 500%, but others too, like the Thai baht, the Philippine peso
and Malaysia’s ringgit, by as much as 60%.