Germany, China and U.S. feel pain of global downturn

By Patrick Fitzgibbons

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three of the world's largest economies painted bleak pictures of current conditions on Thursday as the United States, China and Germany all provided fresh evidence of the global economic slide.

Adding to the overall gloom, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) cut its economic output forecasts for the United States, Japan and euro zone, seeing a tumble into recession for all three.

The worst financial crisis in 80 years, which rippled around the world following the collapse of the U.S. housing market, is taking a heavy toll.

Germany said its economy, Europe's largest, contracted by 0.5 percent in the third quarter, putting it in recession for the first time in five years.

The decline -- much sharper than the 0.2 percent forecast -- was accentuated by German export growth grinding to a halt.

"We are going to have to face up to a very difficult and long-lasting economic crisis," Germany's deputy economy minister, Walther Otremba, told Reuters.

Analysts agreed with that grim forecast.

"The headwinds of the financial crisis and the global economic slowdown are blowing right in the face of the German economy," said Carsten Brzeski of ING Financial Markets.