ROME: European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said Saturday the rate at which Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is falling in developed countries is slowing and a recovery could be expected in 2010.

"We are in a episode in the industrial world of a progressive slow-down of the fall of GDP," Trichet said at a Rome meeting of the Group of 30, which gathers leading figures from the public and private sector as well as academia.

"We are likely to see the fall is diminishing but it is still negative and this is something which could last the present year. The positive figures will appear in the course of next year."