Every corner of the planet is reeling from the financial crisis, and central banks have responded aggressively by slashing borrowing costs.
But the traditional weapon of making it cheaper to borrow doesn't seem to be enough: Interest rates in many parts of the world are at their lowest ever. Many of the world's central bankers are now looking at ways to boost the quantity of money instead of just tweaking the price of it.
Some are implementing quantitative easing _ a term for expanding the supply of money in the economy. Instead of printing new banknotes, the central banks buy securities and other assets from commercial banks in the hope they use their newfound cash to lend to consumers and businesses.
Here's a look at how central banks around the world are attacking the recession _ and the results so far:
_ UNITED STATES: The Federal Reserve was quick off the blocks when the credit markets froze up in the fall of 2008, injecting hundreds of billions of dollars of liquidity into the money markets and slashing interest rates.
By the end of 2008, it could not reduce interest rates any further, having taken the Fed funds rate to an all-time low of between 0 percent and 0.25 percent. The Fed's quantitative easing program has focused on programs to buy corporate debt and kick-starting consumer loans.
Despite massively expanding, its activist strategist has not yet borne fruit, with the U.S. economy still languishing in one of its deepest recessions in generations and the financial sector dogged with solvency issues.
_ JAPAN: With the key interest rate already at 0.1 percent, the Bank of Japan is again looking at other ways to get the world's second-largest economy back on track.
The Bank of Japan has shifted its focus to thawing a corporate credit crunch. As well as boosting liquidity, the Bank of Japan has said it will begin buying stock holdings worth billions of dollars from financial institutions as Japan's big banks have been hit hard by slumping stock markets, which have depleted the value of their stock holdings.
In the last quarter of 2008, Japan contracted at its sharpest rate in nearly 35 years in the fourth quarter as a collapse in exports hit businesses like Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp.
_ EURO ZONE: The European Central Bank has been criticized in many quarters for not cutting interest rates as fast as other banks even though inflation is well below target and the 16 countries that share the euro are contracting sharply. High-value exports have been hit particularly hard by the global downturn.
In early March, the European Central Bank reduced its benchmark rate by a half percentage point to a record low of 1.5 percent and the bank's president, Jean-Claude Trichet, indicated that another cut was possible. However, he voiced opposition to getting borrowing costs down to zero percent.
Trichet also has confirmed that the European Central Bank is investigating whether to boost the money supply in the euro zone, which accounts for more than 15 percent of the world's gross domestic product.
But the European Central Bank faces difficulties with quantitative easing that other central banks don't have. The bank, for example, is barred by law from buying government bonds. Even buying assets in one country might open it to accusations of favoritism.
The ECB has not just relied on interest rates though. It has, since the beginning of the credit crisis in August 2007, provided substantial liquidity by increasing short-term loans to banks to ease the logjam in money markets.
_ BRITAIN: The Bank of England may have been slow to fathom the scale of the recession, but once it started cutting interest rates it did so aggressively.
From a high of 5 percent in early October, the Bank of England slashed its benchmark rate for six months running, taking it down to 0.5 percent, its lowest level since its creation back in 1694.
The Bank announced it is to embark on a program of quantitative easing _ first by buying up to 75 billion pounds of assets from the banks over the coming three months, in the hope that the banks may boost lending to businesses and households.
_ BRAZIL: As the global crisis dries up credit and exports, Brazil's central bank slashed its benchmark Selic rate a full percentage point to 12.75 in January, its first cut since September 2007 and its biggest in five years. After five years of more than 3 percent annual growth, many analysts expect a contraction in 2009.
The central bank is expected to cut rates another percentage point this week.
_ MEXICO: The sagging peso, which has stoked inflationary pressures by making imports more expensive, has limited the central bank's ability to cut interest rates even though a slowing economy needs a much-needed boost. Higher rates can support a country's currency.
The bank reduced its benchmark lending rate a quarter point to 7.5 percent last month, less than expected as policy makers held back to protect the peso. It was only the bank's second cut since 2006 even though the Mexican economy contracted 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
The bank has also sold billions in foreign reserves since October to protect the peso.
_ CHINA: The People's Bank of China is focused on financing the government's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) fiscal stimulus. It's intended to reduce the country's reliance on exports, which have sunk amid sliding global consumer demand, and get domestic consumers to start spending.
The central bank cut interest rates five times from September through December to 5.31 percent. However, bank lending is less significant in China than elsewhere as most private companies don't qualify for loans and rely on retained earnings, as do large state companies.
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AP Business Writers Kelly Olsen in Seoul, Tomoko A. Hosaka in Tokyo and Theresa Bradley in Mexico City contributed to this report.
