Financial assets in Asia lost $9.6 trillion in value in 2008, slightly more than a year's worth of GDP, the Asian Development Bank said on Monday.

It said Asia was hit especially hard as the global downturn led to an estimated $50 trillion in capital losses around the world.

"Asia was hit harder than other parts of the developing world because the region's markets have expanded much more rapidly," the Manila-based bank said in a new study.

It said losses in Asia, not counting Japan, amounted to more than a year's worth of gross domestic product.

According to ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda, the four impacts of the crisis hit Asia in four ways:

• Reducation of exports which leads to unemployment and reduced GDP
• Depressed domestic equity markets and conservative lending strategies
• low credit for SMEs and microenterprises
• reduced remittances from migrant workers

"Losses on financial assets in developing Asia in 2008 totalled 9.6 trillion dollars, or just over one year's worth of GDP," the ADB report said. - With reports from Karen Flores, abs-cbnnews.com and AFP