Cratering currencies, rising inflation, jumpy investors: A financial panic is again gripping some of the world’s developing economies.

The sharp sell-off of emerging market currencies, stocks and bonds seems to stand in stark contrast to the United States, where a nearly decade-long bull market continues amid buoyant economic conditions.



Higher interest rates in the United States and a stronger dollar rebalance the risks and rewards for investors the world over, and act as a kind of financial magnet, pulling them out of riskier investments.

When we’ve seen this before — in the Mexican peso crisis of 1994, the Thai baht collapse of 1997 and the Russian default of 1998 — investors had to contend with spillover of trouble from one country to others, dragging down economic growth or causing market stress.

So far in 2018, this kind of contagion has been limited.



Economies as varied as Argentina, Russia, South Africa and Turkey are facing the maelstrom, but each has its own reasons for falling out of favor, and the turmoil has yet to raise anxiety about the world’s biggest economies and markets.



Here are the key issues that each is contending with.