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LONDON — The world’s developed countries, hard hit by the financial crisis, have probably tipped into a recession that will last at least through the first half of 2009, according to new projections issued Thursday.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast that economic output would shrink 1.4 percent this quarter for the 30 market democracies that make up its membership — and keep contracting until the middle of next year.
That would mean the developed world has entered a slump estimated to last at least three quarters; two consecutive quarters is a common definition of recession. For all of 2009, these countries’ economies would contract by 0.3 percent.
