The prevailing wisdom was that, for emerging market currencies, this time it was different. The asset class may have been plagued by bouts of turbulence from the Asian financial crisis and Russian default of 1997-98 to the Argentine crisis of 2002, but politicians and central bankers had learnt the lessons.

Disciplined fiscal and monetary policy meant many emerging countries now basked in twin government and external surpluses, meaning they were no longer reliant on the fickle whims of foreign financiers.