HONG KONG, Oct 9: The cur rency crisis which has rocked Southeast Asia for the past months could last for up to two years and even get worse, a senior Hong Kong-based banker warned yesterday, reports AFP.

William Overholt. Asian research director with bankers trust company in Hong Kong, said the region was experiencing a "bubbles crisis."

"Japan was the first to go through it, Thailand has a huge real estate crisis, Korea Chaebol (industrial conglomerates) bubble. Indonesia an industry bubble and everywhere there Is a banking bubble." he said.

"The problem is going to be a lot bigger, reality is just sinking in... the speculation will come back and back and back until the bubbles are gone,” he added.

Overholt predicted it may take 18 months to two years for governments- to put in place measures to tempt back in-

vestors and enable the situation to stabilise.

But he warned the crisis could last even longer if those countries affected did not leant from the example of Japan which "tried to postpone the pain and ended prolonging the problem... Japan still has a problem, seven years after."

What was needed was Ameri-can-style management such as seen in the US savings banks crisis in the 1980s when "assets have been marked to market, banks went down, owners and managers lost their Jobs and their money.

"The pain was awful but the crisis was over and the US economy never stopped growing ever since."

On Wednesday the battered Malaysian ringgit staged a stunning recovery and the Indonesian rupiah also treaded higher but analysts warned the upside was limited.