To be or not to be

Staying resilient: A general view of a container yard at North Port in Port Klang. Although global trade volume could remain subdued in this climate of global growth moderation, Malaysian external trade can stay resilient by ensuring diversification.

ECONOMIC boom and bust cycles appear to occur once every decade. The last crisis was the Global Financial Crisis and Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, triggered by subprime loans in the United States.

Prior to that and closer to the region, the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 and 1998 – which some dubbed as the currency crisis – had elements of financial market speculation in an attempt to exploit unsustainable exchange rate regimes.