Economists last night gave warning that further turbulence in stock markets this week could hit growth in the world’s leading industrial economies.

The FTSE 100 has lost more than a tenth of its value in a month. Commentators fear that any further moves this week by central banks to inject capital into the banking system ‘may not be sufficient to quickly restore calm in the markets’.

Carl Weinberg, of High Frequency Economics, is reducing his forecast for US GDP as a result of market turbulence , and is now predicting ‘zero growth’ in the second half of the year.

Larry Hatheway, chief economist at UBS, the investment bank, said: “Deleveraging may prove longer lasting and not confined to the US subprime mortgage market. Concerns about where losses and even insolvency may crop up are likely to plague markets for longer.”

Yesterday, the British Chambers of Commerce was predicting that the UK economy is preparing to experience a ‘marked slowdown’ after five interest rate rises since last August.

Lawrence Staden, principal of hedge fund GLC, said: ‘Nobody has yet mentioned to me the possibility of a stock market crash and I find that surprising. I don’t think we are looking at interest rate cuts yet, but the central banks are going to have to inject as much liquidity as necessary back into the markets.’