Eight years on, Asia's financial crisis seems a distant memory. Despite higher oil prices, growth has rebounded in many countries, private investment is gradually recovering, consumer confidence is strengthening and rising current account surpluses are swelling foreign exchange reserves.

However, the party could quickly end. The reason is that so much of east Asia's recovery, like its pre-crisis growth, has been export-led. Its main motor is exports to China, whose own growth depends significantly on markets in the US and Europe. That leaves the region uncomfortably exposed to external shocks.