Japan has taken some steps to redress its internal
problems, and is promising to take more. Interest rate cuts in the United States and several
European countries in September and October 1998 brought about some return of confidence and
stopped the immediate threat of a further spread of the crisis. The crisis countries are still far from
out of the woods, however, with difficult tasks of financial and corporate restructuring still in
their early phases, and another year of recession nearly certain in many countries.