Asia hit hard by financial crisis – has been badly knocked but could recover fast
TOKYO, 9 March 2009: The financial crisis wiped 50 trillion US dollar off the value of financial assets last year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Monday.
Nearly 10 trillion dollar of those losses were in developing Asia alone (Asia excluding Japan), it said, the equivalent to one years GDP, BBC online reports. But the bank predicted Asia would be one of the first to emerge from recession.
“Asia was hit harder than other parts of the developing world because the regions markets have expanded much more rapidly,” the bank said in a statement.
“This is by far the most serious crisis to hit the world economy since the Great Depression,” Harukhiko Kuroda, the ADB President said.
