Asian investors saw their worst week in at least two decades, wiping out billions of dollars of savings and retirement funds.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 7 percent and is set for an 18 percent decline for the week, the biggest slump since the gauge was created on Dec. 31, 1987. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 11 percent today on concern the deepening credit crisis will push the global economy into a recession.

The global credit crisis sparked by the U.S. housing market collapse has erased more than $6 trillion in market value worldwide this week. Investors from Sydney to Singapore stood in front of bank- window screens and electronic billboards, monitoring the market misery.

Share declines have sparked anger among investors, directed at banks that fomented a credit crunch by packaging and reselling toxic debt.

For investors in China, this week's slump continues a year- long decline that wiped two-thirds off Shanghai's benchmark index. A year ago, more than 200 individual investors packed the Shanghai offices of Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co. each morning. Today there were about 10.

Across the region, the slump is conjuring memories of the collapse of Japan's asset bubble in the 1990s and the Asian financial crisis in 1997.

Many in Asia are seeking refuge in gold, which has risen 10 percent this week.