Not a celebration, sure, but it was still an upbeat parade. Last week, leaders from three troubled economies-Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines-paid successive visits to Singapore in order to boost their image and drum up investment. Their visits served notice that a large chunk of South-East Asia has stabilised, as far as politics is concerned: for much of the previous year, elections, impeachments and indictments had made the region seem hopeless. As currencies and stock-markets in the three "mango republics" fell, the more stable (and more developed) countries of Malaysia and Singapore were tainted by association. Now, just as its economies run bang into a global slowdown, South-East Asia seems to have put the biggest of its political problems behind it. But will that help its economies?
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