The global crisis wiped a staggering $50 trillion off the value of financial assets last year including $9.6 trillion of losses in developing Asia alone, the Asian Development Bank said Monday. «This is by far the most serious crisis to hit the world economy since the Great Depression,» said ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda. But he predicted Asia would be «one of the first regions to emerge from it.» In a study commissioned by the Manila-based lender on the impact of the financial crisis on emerging economies, it estimated the value of financial assets worldwide _ currency, equity and bond markets _ to have dropped by $50 trillion in 2008. It said developing Asia was hit harder _ losing the equivalent of just over one year's worth of gross domestic product _ than other emerging economies because the region has expanded much more rapidly. In Latin America, losses were estimated at $2.1 trillion, Associated Press reported.
