'Global slump to remain a serious drag on growth'

The Asian Development Bank cut most of its 2012 and 2013 growth estimates for developing Asia on Wednesday as a slump in global demand weighs on the region's powerhouses China and India and on its other export-dependent economies.

The ADB cut its GDP growth estimate for China by nearly 1 percentage point to 7.7 percent from the previous 8.5 percent, warning that risks to the world's second-largest economy were likely to intensify in the short term, given bleak global demand and the uncertain outlook for its largest trading partners.