Impact of the Financial Crisis in the Emerging Market

According to a new study commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) entitled Global Financial Turmoil and Emerging Market Economies: Major Contagion and a Shocking Loss of Wealth?, losses on financial assets in developing Asia in 2008 totaled $9.6 trillion, or just over one year's worth of gross domestic product (GDP).

Asia was hit harder than other parts of the developing world because the region's markets have expanded much more rapidly. The value of financial assets to GDP rose to 370% of GDP in developing Asia in 2007 from 250% of GDP in 2003. In Latin America, the ratio only rose by 30%, with the result that estimated losses on financial assets were a much lower $2.1 trillion, or 57% of GDP.

ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda and other experts will discuss the study at the 'South Asia Forum on Impact of the Global Economic and Financial Crisis', a two-day conference being held at ADB headquarters in Manila starting today.

-Global Financial Market Losses Reach $50 Trillion, Says Study

Assorted on Financial Crisis and developing countries

Crisis Reveals Growing Finance Gaps for Developing Countries;

In remarks prepared for delivery at the same conference in London on Monday, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President Justin Yifu Lin said developed countries should spend some of their fiscal stimulus in developing countries as the economic effect could be significant.

“Clearly, fiscal resources do have to be injected in rich countries that are at the epicenter of the crisis, but channeling infrastructure investment to the developing world where it can release bottlenecks to growth and quickly restore demand can have an even bigger bang for the buck and should be a key element to recovery,” Lin said in his prepared remarks.

What the World Bank Is Doing

Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Sub-Saharan Africa

A fiscal stimulus for Africa?

Amid Crisis, Africa Calls for Stronger Partnership With IMF

Poor Countries Need Extra Help to Get Through Global Crisis

Economic Crisis Starts to Hit World's Poorest Countries

The Implications of the Global Financial Crisis for Low-Income Countries