A year ago, Vietnam's stock market was one of the hottest on earth, the tiger's real estate market was soaring and roaring with an economic growth blazing at 8.5%. Exports were booming and foreign investment was flooding in, helped by the countries admission to the World Trade Organization. And just a few months ago, Vietnam was touted as the new China, with its celebrated fast-growing economy - drawing billions of dollars in foreign investments and with the biggest market reform success stories. Today, Vietnam's roaring economy shuts up - workers, investors hit hard by market's steep, there is now about an exodus of foreign investments,  because the economy is dying and Vietnam is on the brink of currency collapse.

 Like economies around the world, Vietnam has been buffeted by soaring food and oil prices and authorities are trying to reign in inflation.

Now, inflation has hit 25.2%, pinching incomes and workers have been striking for higher wages. Property prices are falling and stock market has plummeted to a two-year low, trade deficit has trippled this year, a weakening fiscal position. The stock market is down about 63% over the same period last year, among the best performers in early 2007, has been among the worst this year. And many fear a looming bubble could soon burst with disastrous consequences for local banks.

When inflation goes up, currencies tend to come down. In May, year-on-year inflation peaked at 7.6% in Thailand, 9.6% in the Philippines, 10.4% in Indonesia and whoping 25.2% in Vietnam, leading to depreciations against the not-so-mighty dollar of the Thai Baht, the Philippine Peso, the Indonesia Rupiah and most recently, the Vietnam dong.

The Vietnam's trade deficit for the first five months of the year stood at $14.4 (7.41 billion euro) compared with a $12.4 billion shortfall for the whole of 2007. The country's black market currency exchange rate has reportedly jumped to a record high of more than 18,000 dong to the dollar from the lst week's official rate of 16,268.

The influx of foreign currency puts pressure on the Vietnamese dong to strengthen. But that would make Vietnamese exports more expensive, hurting local industries. So the government held down the exchange rate by buying dollars with dong which inflated the supply of dong contributed to inflation.

The global rise in oil and food prices has also worsened inflation in Vietnam. Apartment prices in Ho Chi Mihn City, the country's commercial hub, have fallen especially sharply this year and many recent buyers are now finding it difficult to maintain repaymentr repayment to the banks. The local cost of borrowing has reached 13%, but experts predict the government may lift rates as high as 18% as it tries to cool the overheating heating economy. And for construction projects has seen prices decrease by 20%-30% since the beginning of the year. The prices once hit 30 million to 32 million dong (US$1,852-$1,975) per square meter, but now are selling at 20 million dong.

Investor have deserted Vietnamese shares, foreign investor's confidence in the government's economic management waned earlier this year. An exodus of foreign-controlled capital is taking place. They walked away from an invitation to take a strategic stake in the country's largest insurer Vietcombank after conducting independent due dilligence.  Hence, the government has slashed its growth target to 7% from as much as 9% and the prevailing mood has soured dramatically.

However, despite it difficulties, Vietnam is likely to continue making significant economic progress, eager to modernize the country. Many of ther strength that lured a record $20 billion in foreign investment last year remain in place. The nation has a rapidly emerging middle -class and has adopted many economic reforms.

It is true that Vietnam is like China, eventually it will become another economic powerhouse as economists predict that any downturn should last little more than a year. 

HANOI: Vietnamese farmers are expanding the southern planting area of the summer-autumn rice crop to catch up with high prices

The latest statistics available showed that two-thirds of the world's population may face two-digit inflation before July or August. Most of them will be emerging countries in Asia.

This  is a worrying signs then, a financial crisis would trigger another financial crisis - similar to the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The question is: Which countries will be the next affected, which countries belong the two-third's?

They said these countries have had robust growth in the past few years driven by sky-high demand. And these were the ones to take a quantum leap down to a worry manger.

Well, still the bottomline of the story which I believe, it is the poor who are the most and always affected by.