Regarding "The IMF Record in Asia Is Mixed" (Opinion, Jan.21) by Philip Bowring:

In taking the IMF to task for its assessment of the Asian crisis, Mr. Bowring misses a few key facts.

Mr. Bowring complains about a "glaring" omission from the report of the role of short-term capital flows in the run-up to the crisis. The omission was deliberate. This topic was already discussed by the IMF in reports published in October and December 1998.

Mr. Bowring is in error in criticizing the decision to stabilize Asia's collapsing currencies through higher interest rates, which, he asserts, brought about the collapse of domestic demand and corporate bankruptcies. The report makes clear that a central problem was that firms and financial institutions that had borrowed in foreign currencies were battered by the exchange-rate depreciations; if the authorities had done nothing to resist these depreciations, the wave of bankruptcies and attendant collapse in demand would probably have been worse.

His claim that the Fund recommended the closure of 16 Indonesian banks after a "few days of quick study" flies in the face of the record. The IMF had provided assistance to Indonesia on its banking system for several years before the crisis erupted. The IMF agonized over the closure of the banks, in part because it was known that more institutions were in trouble.

The IMF will continue to assess the events of the past 18 months to better prevent future crises.

There is no question that there are important lessons to be learned from the Asian crisis and the IMF is learning them.