South Korea has so far weathered the crisis better than most – perhaps even its own government – expected. Seoul spent the early months in a state of high anxiety, flinging out swap lines, backstopping interbank lending and setting up a giant 20,000bn won ($16bn) fund to recapitalise the banks. Then there was a whopping stimulus package. Only the US and China have committed to spending more as a percentage of gross domestic product.

All this has settled nerves. The economy shrank just over 4 per cent in the first quarter, year on year, but was stable on the previous three months. The won is the second best performing Asian currency against the dollar this year; equities are up a third. Recognising it was time to throw a bone to providers of speculative capital, the securities regulator last week lifted a ban on the short selling of non-financial companies.