How did the Asian economy cope with the global financial crisis and recession? A revaluation and review

In the initial stages, Asian economies remained insulated from the global financial crisis of 2007--09 and there seemed to be a possibility that Asia would find easy passage through it. But an outward-oriented group of economies could not possibly be immune from the crisis for long, and as the crisis intensified, Asian economies, too, found themselves getting affected. This article delves into why the Asian economies were only moderately affected in the early stages of the global financial crisis, but, subsequently, the stock markets and currencies in the region came under strong downward pressure. The majority of the Asian economies, particularly the newly industrialized economies (NIEs), experienced sharp GDP contractions. The decoupling theory lost its relevance. However, the Asian economies came up with strong and timely countercyclical responses and were the first to recover from the global financial crisis. They not only spearheaded the global recovery, but contributed significantly to it.