ABSTRACT
The frequency, virulence, and global spread of financial crises in emerging market countries in the last five years – Mexico in 1994, with the subsequent tequila contagion in Latin America and for a day or two in east Asia; east Asia in 1997 and 1998, with contagion spreading crisis within the region; Russia in 1998, itself affected by Asian contagion, with the Russian contagion spreading to Latin America in addition to eastern Europe and the rest of the former Soviet Union – has led to the most serious rethinking of the structure of the international financial system since the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system in 1971. In the coming months and years, governments and international institutions will be putting in place a series of changes designed to strengthen the international financial system.
