Currently, there are 29 countries officially in economic recessions worldwide. A substantial number of other countries have been affected as well by the ongoing economic crisis. A recession is marked by two continuous quarters of negative growth in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP). A country’s GDP is the market value of all final goods and services produced in a country during a specified year.

Several indicators of an economic recession throughout the industrialized world began to surface in 2008 with the emergence of high oil prices, high food prices, a substantial credit crisis and rising unemployment.

In January 2008, oil prices surpassed $100 a barrel for the first time in history, peaking in July at $147.30 a barrel before falling to below $35.00 at the end of 2008. By the second half of 2008, the price of most commodities had lowered dramatically due to expectations of diminished demand in a world recession. Trade fell and global inflation soared to historic levels. For many nations, domestic inflation rose to 10 to 20 year highs. Furthermore, the International Labor Organization estimates that at least 20 million jobs will be lost in the year 2009, bringing world unemployment to above 200 million for the first time in history.

The U.S. recession stemmed from the subprime mortgage crisis, a declining dollar value, the financial crisis of 2007-2008 and a growing unemployment percentage rate. On Sep. 5, 2008, the United States Department of Labor issued a report, which stated that the unemployment rate had risen to 6.1 percent, the highest in five years.

To counter the growing global recession, many countries such as China, the United States and those of the European Union have announced their own economic stimuli.

On Dec. 1, 2008, The National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the United States entered a recession in December 2007, citing production and unemployment figures and third quarter decline in GDP.

Since the U.S. housing crisis, the global economy has been affected greatly. Iceland almost went bankrupt when its major banks suffered tremendous losses. Iceland, which depends mainly on its banking sector as its source income, required a bailout from Russia.

Oil prices have been sinking lower and lower due to speculators weary of energy usage. Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has consistently tried to stabilize the price of oil, to no avail, as prices have fallen to as low as $20 per barrel.

In addition, the major stock markets of Hong Kong, Russia and Japan have all suffered major crashes. The Dow Jones and National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) have dropped to levels unseen before in decades.

China, home to the world’s fastest growing economy, has seen its GDP growth shrink to about 7 percent, a drop of about 8 percent.

Governments across the world have tried to stabilize the problem of the crisis by injecting money into its financial sectors. No major results have been seen so far.

The only major country that has been weathering the economic crisis fairly well is Germany. The unemployment rate has remained relatively unchanged and its GDP is fairly stable. Economic experts report that things may begin to improve beginning in the 2010.