ABSTRACT
Table 6.1 summarises cross-country differences in liberalisation approaches and outcomes. Korea adopted a highly gradual and piecemeal approach to interest rate deregulation. The government maintained strict control over fi nancial prices during most of the 1980s. It was only towards the end of the decade that the government launched its fi rst comprehensive programme of interest deregulation – only to abandon it when macro-economic conditions proved unfavourable. While a revised plan in 1991 envisaged a multistage interest rate liberalisation to be implemented over the next 5 years, serious efforts to free the main interest rates were not made until the mid-1990s.
