Table 4. Two consecutive year ratio of the standardised suicide rates for the three regions during 1996–1997 and 2007–2008.

	Females			Males
	Estimate	Lower CL	Upper CL	Estimate	Lower CL	Upper CL
Hong Kong
Ratio $1997/1996$	1.08624	0.91004	1.29654	1.18345	1.03279	1.35609
Ratio $2008/2007$	1.22678	1.05620	1.42491	0.98402	0.87373	1.10824
Ratio of Ratios	1.12938	0.89533	1.42462	0.83148	0.69840	0.98994
Taiwan
Ratio $1997/1996$	1.18387	1.05838	1.32425	1.12896	1.04464	1.22009
Ratio $2008/2007$	0.99448	0.91813	1.07718	1.05149	0.99570	1.11041
Ratio of Ratios	0.84002	0.73472	0.96042	0.93138	0.84496	1.02664
South Korea
Ratio $1997/1996$	1.94019	1.82141	2.06671	1.98215	1.89414	2.07425
Ratio $2008/2007$	1.01477	0.96548	1.06657	1.03048	0.99319	1.06917
Ratio of Ratios	0.52302	0.48464	0.56445	0.51988	0.49103	0.55043

Notes: Ratio of ratios compares the effects of the 2008 recession to the 1997 recession. The lower and upper 95% confidence limits are shown by ‘Lower CL’ and ‘Upper CL’, respectively.