Developing Asia's economic growth will slow in 2009 to its most sluggish pace since the 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.

In its flagship annual economic publication, Asian Development Outlook 2009, the Manila-based bank said that economic growth in developing Asia will slide to just 3.4 percent this year, down from 6.3 percent last year and 9.5 percent in 2007. If the global economy experiences a mild recovery next year, the outlook for the region will improve to 6 percent in 2010, it added.

Deteriorating economic prospects will hinder the efforts to reduce poverty. With the slow growth, more than 60 million people in 2009, and close to 100 million people in 2010, will remain trapped in poverty -- living on less than US$1.25 a day.

"The short term outlook for the region is bleak as the full impact of the severe recession in industrialized economies is transmitted to emerging markets," ADB Acting Chief Economist Jong-Wha Lee said in a press release.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2009)