Over the past 15 years, economic and financial crises have  taken a heavy toll on emerging markets and economies in transition. The impact of these crises was intensified at times by inadequate flows of information from debtors to creditors, which impacted risk assessments; sharp shifts in sentiment among investors; insufficient dialogue and early corrective action that precluded timely solutions; and failures to introduce sufficient measures to secure or restore investor confidence. Evidence from several countries shows that it often took a number of years before crisis countries were able to return to pre-crisis  levels of employment and national income.