The global crisis slashed value of financial assets worldwide by US$50 trillion in 2008, with developing Asia suffering the worst among emerging market regions, a study released on Monday said.

Losses on financial assets in developing Asia last year totaled US$9.6 trillion, or just over one year's worth of gross domestic product (GDP), said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its latest study.

"Asia was hit harder than other parts of the developing world because the region's markets have expanded much more rapidly," said the ADB study, entitled "Global Financial Turmoil and Emerging Market Economies: Major Contagion and a Shocking Loss of Wealth?"

It said that the value of financial assets rose to 370 percent of GDP in developing Asia in 2007 from 250 percent of GDP in 2003. In Latin America, the ratio only rose by 30 percent, with the result that estimated losses on financial assets were a much lower US$2.1 trillion, or 57 percent of GDP.

"This is by far the most serious crisis to hit the world economy since the Great Depression," said ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda.

While the ongoing crisis originated in the United States and some European countries, Kuroda said that by now no region or country is insulated.

"I am afraid things may get worse before they get better. However, I remain confident that Asia will be one of the first regions to emerge from it, and it will emerge stronger than ever before," he added.

The ADB estimates measure the losses in equity and bond markets, including those backed by mortgages and other assets, and the depreciation of many currencies against the U.S. dollar. Not included are financial derivatives such as credit default swaps that further multiplied the size of the financial markets.

The data provide clear proof of the close connections between the markets and the economies around the world, leaving few, if any, countries immune to financial or economic fallouts elsewhere. A recovery can only now be envisaged for late 2009 or early 2010, according to the study.

"Most emerging market economies, including in developing Asia and Latin America are at a crossroads, and the next 12 to 18 months will be very difficult," said the study.

"However, there has been no destruction of physical and human capital, boding well for a strong recovery, possibly more cautious and sustainable, after the adjustments in the financial markets are worked through over the next year or so," it added.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2009)