Both economies have experienced currency crises within recent memory – South Korea in 1997-1998 and Brazil in 1999 – and both subsequently took steps to increase their financial resilience. They reduced inflation, floated their currencies, ran external surpluses or small deficits, and, most importantly, accumulated mountains of foreign reserves (which now comfortably exceed their short-term external debts).
看一看韩国和巴西所发生的情况。这两个经济体在不久以前都遭受过货币危机。韩国是在1997-1998年而巴西是在1999年，随后它们都采取步骤提高了金融韧性。它们降低了通货膨胀，让货币自由浮动，保持对外盈余或者很小的赤字，并且更重要的是积聚了巨额的外汇储备（其数额现在已经大大超出了它们的短期外债）。巴西在财政上的良好表现使标准普尔甚至在今年四月将它的信用评级提高到了投资级（而韩国多年来一直被评为投资级）。