Will an ex-communist country be the next Iceland? The dramatic collapse of that country's economy, endangering savings from hapless depositors in Britain and elsewhere, has highlighted other risky but obscure corners of the world's financial system. The stability of the Ukrainian hryvnia, the implications of the Latvian property crash and Hungarians' troubling penchant for loans in Swiss francs are among the exotic topics now crowding policymakers' desks.rnCountries such as the ex-communist ones in eastern Europe are particularly at risk during periods of financial turmoil. First, because the counterpart of soaring foreign investment has been gaping current-account deficits (Latvia's, for example, peaked at 26% of gdp in the third quarter of last year). Second, their central banks and governments are unlikely to be able to muster the financial firepower now being deployed in the big economies of the West. Already a couple of banks have toppled;rnstockmarkets have plunged, wiping out years of savings and hitting balance-sheets.
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