Washington  - The World Bank warned Sunday that developing countries face a huge financing gap amid the global recession, the development lender reported Sunday ahead of the March 14 meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs.

The Washington-based World Bank's projection is for the global economy to shrink in 2009 for the first time since World War II. World trade is heading for the steepest decline in 80 years, hitting East Asia hardest.

The report said that developing countries face a financing shortfall of at least 270 billion dollars - perhaps as high as 700 billion dollars - for this year alone. Private-sector creditors have fled emerging markets.

Three out of four poor countries lack the resources to combat rising poverty during the ongoing downturn, and international financial institutions will not be able to help developing countries through the crisis alone, the World Bank said.

"We need to react in real time to a growing crisis that is hurting people in developing countries," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said. "This global crisis needs a global solution, and preventing an economic catastrophe in developing countries is important for global efforts to overcome this crisis."

He called for "investments in safety nets, infrastructure and small and medium-size companies to create jobs and to avoid social and political unrest." (dpa)