New York, USA, on 8 October 2009 - The world's largesteconomies took the biggest hit in the World Economic Forum'ssecond annual Financial Development Report released today.Traditional global financial centres still lead in the report's Index,but the effects of financial instability have pulled down their scorescompared to last year. The United Kingdom, buoyed by the relativestrength of its banking and non-banking financial activities, claimedthe Index's top spot from the United States, which slipped to thirdposition behind Australia largely due to poorer financial stabilityscores and a weakened banking sector.