In terms of crisis episodes, in total 177 crises (cumulative) are involved in 59 crisis episodes. On average, one crisis episode carries three crisis types. There are 50 crisis episodes that include currency crises or 85 percent of crisis episodes are associated with currency crises. Debt crises and financial crises also frequently appear in crisis episodes, as these types of crises are observed in about a half of crisis episodes. On the other hand, balance of payments crises are observed in around 20 percent of total crisis episodes.

**Table 5: Crisis Identification on a Crisis Basis in Q1 1980-Q4 2002**

||C|risis Period|s(Quarters|)|No of|Cr|isis Episode<br>No of|s||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||No. of<br>quarters|Ratio in<br>samples|Total<br>degree|Crisis<br>average|.<br>episodes<br>1/|Ratio in<br>episodes|.<br>quarters<br>2/|Total<br>degree|Episode<br>average|
|Banking<br>(Liquidity)|77|5.9%|-183|-2.4|21|38%|44|-103|-2.3|
|Banking<br>(Solvency)|74|5.7%|-187|-2.5|19|33%|53|-136|-2.6|
|Balance of<br>payments|32|2.3%|-80|-2.5|12|21%|25|-63|-2.4|
|Currency|409|29.8%|-1,080|-2.6|50|85%|164|-451|-2.8|
|Debt|94|6.9%|-226|-2.4|29|46%|51|-122|-2.4|
|Growth<br>rate|106|7.7%|-272|-2.6|30|47%|75|-198|-2.6|
|Financial|35|4.2%|-92|-2.6|16|29%|21|-57|-2.8|
|Total|825|9.2%|-2,121|-2.6|177|-|431|-1,125|-2.6|
|Average|118|-|303|-|3.0||7.3|||

_1/ Number of appearances in crisis episodes and maximum is 59_ _2/ Number of periods (quarters) in crisis episodes. Then, ‘No. of quarters’ gap between crisis periods and episodes shows crisis periods excluded from crisis episodes._ _Source: Author_ The frequency of each type of crises differs in each period (Table 6, Fig 5). Although currency crises are dominant throughout the periods, their relative frequency declines in the late 1990s. Currency crises account for more than 50 percent of seven crisis types until the early 1990s, but its share declines to 35 percent in the late 1990s. Debt crises become less frequent in the 1990s as well. In the 1980s, debt crises account for 15 percent, while their share declines to five percent in the late 1990s. On the other hand, solvency type banking crises increase their share to 17 percent in the late 1990s, and financial crises double their share in the late 1990s.

The decline in the relative importance of currency crises seems to be consistent with the developments of the exchanger rate regimes. Under the flexible exchange rate regime the risk of abrupt currency deprecation is less compared to the fixed exchange rate regime. In the past, many countries adopted fixed exchange rate and/or managed exchange rate regimes so that to prevent excess fluctuations of the currencies. According to the IMF (1997, p.79), in 1981 among 113 developing countries 57 countries had pegged exchange rate regimes, 10 countries had limited-flexibility exchange rate regimes and 15 countries had more flexible exchange rate regimes. In 1996, 45 countries had pegged exchange rate regimes, three countries had limited-flexibility exchange rate regimes and 52 countries had more flexible exchange rate regimes. The decline in the relative importance of currency crises is not only the share in total but also the absolute numbers. In 1981-1985 there were 146 currency crisis periods, while there were 61 currency crisis periods in 1996-2000.

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