South Korea

Budget balance: 1.5%
Current account: -2.5%
Sovereign credit rating: A/Stable
Stock market: -54.5%

The ongoing global credit crunch has dried up dollars at Korean banks and triggered the country's worst capital flight since the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. The Korean won, hovering around 1,400 to the dollar on Oct. 10, is the world's worst-hit major currency, having lost about 33% of its value against the greenback since the beginning of this year. The Bank of Korea cut its base lending rate by a quarter-percentage point this week to help bolster the country's troubled financial markets. And unlike the bad days of the Asian crisis, when Korea had only $30 billion in foreign currency reserves, the country now has built up a $240 billion pile to defend itself.