Washington  - The World Bank on Tuesday warned that a financial crisis striking the global economy could spark the worst worldwide recession since the Great Depression.

The global development bank slashed its previous estimates for global growth to 2.5 per cent in 2008 and 0.9 per cent in 2009, well below the 3-per-cent rate typically considered the dividing line between global growth and contraction.

Washington, Dec 9 : Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch CEOs have given up bonuses amid a climate of bank failures, thousands of layoffs and an economic recession

Morgan Stanley CEO John J. Mack is giving up a bonus for the second straight year, CBS News reported.

Mack said in a memo on Monday to employees that he and the firm’s two presidents, James Gorman and Walid Chammah, informed their board’s compensation committee of their decision to forgo 2008 bonuses, and the committee accepted.

He also said the company is planning to make further changes to year-end compensation for other employees.

Berlin  - German exports fell in October, the nation's statistics office said Tuesday, as slowing global growth undercut foreign orders for Europe's biggest economy.

Adjusted for working days and seasonal factors, exports dropped by 0.5 per cent month on month in October after rising by 0.8 per cent in September.

However, the fall in October was less than expected with analysts having predicted that signs the world economy was rapidly losing momentum would result in German exports slumping by more than 1 per cent. Year on year, exports rose 1.4 per cent in October.

Hong Kong  - A raft of measures including permanent cuts in salary and corporate taxes and investment in infrastructure have been proposed by the International Monetary Fund as a way of stimulating demand in Hong Kong, the government said Tuesday.

"Well targeted infrastructure investments should boost the economy's potential by further increasing skill levels and productivity," IMF directors said in a report on Hong Kong's economy.

Berlin  - German investor confidence is to fall this month, a key indicator released Tuesday is forecast to say, as concerns set in about the outlook for Europe's biggest economy.

Drawn up by the Mannheim-based Centre for European Economic Research, the ZEW index is forecast by analysts to drop to minus 54.3 in December after posting a surprise jump to minus 53.5 November.

Tokyo  - Japanese gross domestic product declined in the third quarter by an annualized 1.8 per cent, according to a revised government estimate, contracting more sharply than in an earlier, initial estimate.

For the July-September period, the Japanese government had initially estimated a contract at an annualized rate of 0.4 per cent.

The sharper contraction only confirms a second quarter of shrinking GDP, clarifying that Japan's economy has plummeted into the textbook definition of recession.