The Chronology of the Indonesian Rupiah
<1997>
Jul 02 - After a failed defense of the Thai baht, Bangkok floats its currency and calls on the IMF for "technical assistance". The baht is effectively devalued by about 15-20 pct.
Jul 08 - Malaysia's central Bank Negara has to intervene aggressively to defend the Ringgit. In Indonesia, theRupiah starts to crumble.
Jul 14 - The IMF offers the Philippines almost $1.1 billion in financial support.
Jul 24 - Asian currency meltdown. The Rupiah, baht, Ringgit and peso slump as confidence in theregion deteriorates.
Aug 11 - In Tokyo, the IMF unveils a rescue package for Thailand including loans of $16 billion fromthe IMF and Asian nations.
Aug 14 - Indonesia abolishes its system of a managed exchange rate. The Rupiah plunges
Aug 20 - IMF approves a $3.9 billion credit for Thailand. Brunei later adds $500 million to the bail-out package bringing it to $17.2 billion
Sep 20 - Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad tells delegates of IMF/World Bank conferencein Hong Kong that currency trading is immoral.
Oct 08 - Indonesia says it will ask the IMF for financial assistance.
Oct 20-23 - The Hong Kong stock market suffers its heaviest drubbing ever, shedding nearly a quarter of its value in four days on uncertainty over the Hong Kong dollar. Around this time the South Korean won also begins to slump in value.
Oct 27 - Asian jitters spill over on to world stock markets. The Dow plunges 554 points, its largest single day point loss ever.
Oct 31 - Indonesia's IMF package is unveiled. It provides for as much as $40 billion in aid, although the frontline defense is $23 billion.
Nov 01 - Indonesia shuts down 16 troubled banks.
Nov 05 - IMF approves a $10 billion loan for Indonesia as part of the massive international package.
Nov 17 - Korea abandons its defense of the won, which rapidly falls to 1,000 to the dollar.
Dec 04 - IMF approves a $21 billion loan for South Korea, part of a bail-out package that will total nearly $60 billion.
Dec 08 - Thailand closes 56 of 58 previously suspended finance companies.
<1998>
Jan 08 - Representatives of the IMF and South Korea agree to a 90 day rollover of short- term debt.
Jan 12 - Peregrine, one of Asia's largest independent investment banks, collapses under a mountain of bad loans to Indonesian borrowers. Shares fall sharply in Hong Kong, China and Singapore.
Jan 15 - IMF managing director Michel Camdessus and President Suharto sign an agreement strengthening economic reforms.
Jan 22 - The Rupiah collapses. It is dealt at 17,000 to the dollar at one stage. Bank Indonesia intervenes and drives the currency back to end at 11,800.
Jan 27 - Indonesia announces a temporary freeze on debt servicing.
Jan 28 - International creditor banks and the South Korean government say they have agreed on a plan to exchange $24 billion of short-term debt for new loans maturing in one, two and three years.
Jan 30 - U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warns Asia's financial crisis could spread.
Feb 14 - The IMF threatens to cut off the bail-out fund for Indonesia over its plans to introduce a currency board system (CBS).
Feb 26 - Indonesia's borrowers and lenders begin negotiations on rescheduling at least $70 billion in private off-shore debt.
Mar 01 - Suharto says reforms prescribed by the IMF have not worked.
Mar 04 - The IMF approves release of the third tranche payment from Thailand's package and commends the Thai government for its economic reforms.
Mar 06 - IMF says its board will not discuss Indonesia's economic reform program before April, Effectively delaying a $3 billion payment initially expected by March 15.
Mar 23 - Indonesia nearly doubles interest rates to boost the Rupiah and control inflation.
Apr 01 - Japan begins steps aimed at liberalizing its financial markets to make them "free, fair and global" by 2001. Tokyo share prices fall, the yen dips and Japan's central bank governor pronounces every economic indicator bad.
Apr 02 - The chairman of electronics giant Sony, Norio Ohga, says the Japanese economy is on the verge of collapse.
Apr 03 - U.S. ratings agency Moody's lowers its outlook on Japan's sovereign debt to negative from stable. Asian currencies fall sharply on the news.
May 07 - Fears that riots in the Indonesian city of Medan will spill over into a wider social crisis send regional stocks into retreat.
May 11 - India stuns the world with announcement of three underground nuclear tests. Pakistanstocks tumble 3.52 percent while India's National Stock Exchange index slides 2.55 pct.
May 13 - The United States imposes economic sanctions on India and Japan suspends some loans.
May 14 - Mobs rampage through Jakarta and students demand Suharto's resignation. Indonesia's worsening crisis takes centre-stage for Asian markets, several of which suffer sharp losses.
May 15 - Suharto returns home from Egypt amid signs he is losing his 32-year grip on power.
May 21 - Suharto steps down and is succeeded by former deputy president B.J. Habibie. Markets enjoy a limited rally. Jakarta stocks surge more than 3 pct.
May 25 - South Korean shares plummet 6.78 pct despite a lifting of foreign ownership limits on stocks. Most other Asian markets shrug off Seoul's fall.
May 26 - Seoul's KOSPI share index continues to dive, losing a further 6 pct, hurt by a looming recession and labor unrest.
May 27 - Asian markets are hammered as the yen falls against the dollar and amid mounting fears of economic recession. Hong Kong stocks plunge more than five percent after Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa warns of possible recession.
May 28 - Pakistan conducts nuclear tests.
May 29 - The dollar rockets to a seven year high of 139 yen on fears of a possible nuclear arms race in Asia and after news that Japan's unemployment rate hit 4.1 pct in April, its highest level since the end of World War Two. Recession looms in much of Asia. Hong Kong reports that its gross domestic product contracted 2 pct in the quarter of 1998. About the same time Indonesia and Malaysia also report their economies contracted in the first quarter.
Jun 01 - Pakistani stocks plunge 12.38 pct as traders get their first chance to react to sanctions imposed after the country's nuclear tests. Asian markets are hit as nuclear tension adds to a cocktail of domestic problems.
Jun 05 - International lenders and Indonesian companies reach a deal to reschedule the country's massive corporate debt.
Jun 08 - The yen falls past 140 to the dollar, sending a shudder through Asian markets. Signs that Japan and other leading economies are unlikely to intervene to support the unit sap confidence further.
Jun 10 - China's central bank governor warns that the weak yen is having a severe impact on Beijing's foreign trade, raising fears that China may devalue its yuan currency. Markets across Asia tumble, Led by a near five percent fall on Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index. In Taiwan, the local dollar hits new 11 year lows and the Australian dollar plummets past 59 U.S. cents.
Jun 11 - U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin all but rules out the possibility of joint intervention by major industrial powers to bolster the yen. He says the weak yen reflects the state of the Japanese economy.
Jun 12 - Economic Planning Agency says Japan's gross domestic product fell by an annualized rate of 5.3 pct in the first quarter, signaling recession. The yen dives towards 145 to the dollar as hopes fade of official intervention.
Jun 17 - The U.S. joins Japan in selling the dollar in favor of the yen. The action takes markets by surprise when the yen rises to a high of around 134 at one stage from a level of some 142.50 prior to the intervention.
Jun 19 - U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin tells Reuters he is not expecting high level meetings in Tokyo to produce specific new action plans on the economy. His statements puts further pressure on the yen.
Jun 20 - Top finance officials from the Group of Seven meet in Tokyo and vow to cooperate as appropriate in the currency markets.
Jun 23 - Michel Camdessus calls the yen fall a "crisis within the crisis".
Jun 25 - Indonesia and the IMF sign another letter of intent -- the fourth one. The letter says that Indonesian GDP is expected to contract by at least 10 percent in 1998 and says the Rupiah will stabilize at around 10,000 by the last quarter of 1998.
Jun 26 - Malaysia cuts bank statutory reserve requirements to 8 pct from 10 pct.
Jun 29 - For the first time, South Korea closes banks, shutting 5 ailing operations in a major step towards meeting the mandate of the massive IMF rescue package.
Jul 02 - Indonesia said almost 96 million people (half of its 200 million people) will not be able to afford food or other necessities by the end of the year because of the crippling economic crisis. Central statistics bureau chief Sugito Suwito told a news conference that 95.8 million people, about 48 percent of the population, would be living below the poverty line by the end of the year. Indonesia defines the poverty line as being able to afford 2,100 calories per day per person along with minimum non-food items such as education, health, housing and clothes. Currently defined as 52,470 Rupiah ($36.7) per person per month or 227,720 Rupiah for a family of 4.34 persons in a city and 4.28 persons in a village.
Jul 02 - Japan's "bridge bank" plan for winding up failed banks without bankrupting their relatively sound creditors will be a two-step process, taking 2 years in principle but with possible extensions of up to 3 years.
Jul 02 - Former Indonesian President Suharto is said to be maneuvering to re-establish a political powerbase to shield his family's substantial financial fortune from scrutiny by future governments, The New York Times said. It said that there was no direct evidence that the Suharto family had tried to bribe political or military leaders. However, the officials told the newspaper that Suharto and his six children were offering to underwrite the political campaigns of legislatures who vow loyalty to the family, which has a fortune in the billions of dollars.