Korea, Thailand coming back

Korea, Thailand coming back

TOKYO (AP): South Korea and Thailand are over the worst of the Asian economic crisis, but grinding poverty still stands in the way of recovery in Indonesia, the president of the World Bank said on Tuesday.

"We've come a long way in Korea and Thailand in building the economic and financial base... to try to stabilize the economic situation," James Wolfensohn told reporters in Tokyo.

The two countries have largely overcome the "worst excesses" of problems of interest rates, foreign reserves and lack of credit, he said.

Indonesia, however, is making slower progress, in part because it was poorer than South Korea and Thailand before the Asian financial crisis hit last year, Wolfensohn said.

For example, 60 million Indonesians are surviving on just US$2 a day, while another 15 million scrape by on a daily budget of $1 or less, he said. Private debt to foreign creditors also totals $60 billion.

"It's quite hard with that background to make an immediate jump forward," he said.