Berlin, January 29:

A surge in Germany’s unemployment rate and more

widespread Asian job cuts plunged the world economy deeper in the mire today as Barack Obama’s plan to cushion the impact on the US passed its first hurdle.

The jobless rate in Germany jumped 387,000 over the last month to almost 3.5 million, well above forecasts for Europe’s largest economy, which is due to hold national elections later this year.

There was also grim news on the job front in Asia’s largest economy with Japan’s Nippon Sheet Glass Company saying it will shed 5,800 jobs by 2010 and Toshiba announcing plans to cut 4,500 jobs this year after going into the red.

Toshiba chief executive

Atsushi Nishida told reporters that the company aimed

to cut 300 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in costs.

Other titans of Japanese industry were also showing the strain with Sony Corporation warning it remained on course for its biggest ever loss in the year to March following a fall in demand for televisions, cameras and games consoles.

Even Nintendo, which has enjoyed spectacular growth in earnings in recent years thanks to surging sales of the Wii and other game consoles, cut its annual net profit forecast by one-third to 230 billion yen.

The IMF had forecast on Wednesday that the world economy would likely record the slowest pace of growth for the world since World War II in the coming year.

“Despite wide-ranging policy actions, financial strains remain acute, pulling down the real economy,” it said, in an update of November forecasts that shaved about 1.75 points off its prior global growth estimate.

A forecast in the IMF report said the US economy was set to contract by 1.6 percent in 2009, underlining the severity of the crisis facing the country’s new president as he sought to win the backing of lawmakers for a 819-billion-dollar economic stimulus package approved by a vote margin of 244-188.

But despite clearing its first hurdle comfortably, Obama notably failed to win over any Republican members of Congress and even 11 representatives from his own Democratic party voted against.

Republicans, who lacked the votes to block the bill in the House but have significantly more clout in the Senate, promised not to be merely “the party of ‘no’” and hinted they would keep fighting for tax cuts as the best remedy.