The global downturn, meanwhile, prompted Switzerland's central bank to make a surprise interest rate cut of a full percentage point.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was reported by CNBC to be planning to boost his stake in Citigroup back to 5 percent. The U.S. financial giant is subject to serious concern over losses and even survival. The bank's shares plunged 23 percent on Wednesday.

All this was accompanied by another sharp sell-off on global equity markets. Wall Street looked set for a second consecutive day of losses, although the Swiss and Citi news pared back fears of deep falls.

The International Monetary Fund stepped in to bail out troubled Iceland, leading a US$10.2 billion help package, and was set to make as much as US$40 billion available to Turkey.

The deepening global recession was also eating into company outlooks. Prospects for a U.S. bailout of its automakers faded and General Motors underlined its troubles by announcing a two month production shutdown in Thailand.

On the jobs front, French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen said it would cut 2,700 jobs, Anglo Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca saw 1,400 losses over coming years, and engine maker Roll-Royce expects up to 2,000 job cuts next year.

Planned layoffs since September at non-financal companies worldwide now total at least 172,000. To that can be added 89,500 in financial sector job losses.

The world's leading economies will likely be in recession for around a year, a Reuters poll of economists showed.

The survey of around 250 economists across the Group of Seven nations showed economies facing a recession for as much as five quarters.

"All developed economies will contract in 2009. It's the worst we have had in a century. But to say it's going to look like 1929 again for all these economies is a bit excessive, it's too pessimistic," said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit.

The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Wednesday that the U.S. economy would contract through the first half of next year.

"No end in sight," ING economists said in a note on Thursday, a sentiment widely shared by investors.

Japan's exports to Asia fell in October for the first time since 2002, suggesting that the fallout from the credit crisis has spread to neighbours such as China.

Shipments to Asia had previously cushioned the impact on Japanese exports of weakening demand from the United States and Europe. But Thursday data showed they fell 4 percent from a year earlier.

"The fall in exports to Asia reflects that their economies are also taking a blow from weakness in developed economies," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute in Tokyo.