On July 2, 1997, the day after Shivakumar took up his post as the World Bank’s director for Thailand, the country floated its currency, the baht, sparking Asia,s economic meltdown.
Shivakumar and his staff were overwhelmed by the ensuing chaos. The World Bank barely had a presence in Thailand, and although the new team was young and energetic, it lacked experience. “We had no knowledge or information base to work from,” Shivakumar says. “It took about six months before we could get a handle on things.”
Shivakumar and World Bank economist Ijaz Nabi have chronicled those hectic days in Back from the Brink: Thailand’s Response to the 1997 Economic Crisis, published last month by World Bank Publications. In their view, the government’s failure to keep private sector excesses in check was the prime cause of the Thai crisis.
The India-born country director sees the book as his contribution to the historical record, not as a finger-pointing exercise. “No one could foresee the extent of what would happen,” he says. Not even Thailand’s neighbors , they pledged their help in the early days of the collapse, unaware that they too would soon be fighting for their economic lives.
Don,t expect to hear much more from Shivakumar, 62, now that his book is complete. He has avoided publicly commenting on how the government should handle its ongoing problems. “If you,re high-key in the media, you can become part of the problem instead of the solution,” he says. “We,d rather be quiet and effective.”
