Guangdong and Shanghai, the two economic powerhouses of China, have suffered setbacks because of the global financial crisis and forecast even worse prospects.

Guangdong province, which neighbors Hong Kong and is host to a large cluster of export-oriented manufacturing units, now faces the most severe challenge since the Asian financial crisis in 1998, Deputy Governor Huang Longyun said yesterday.

The province's GDP growth last year was 10.1 percent, down from 14.7 percent in 2007, while its exports grew by just 5.6 percent, down from 22.3 percent from the previous year, Huang told a news conference in Beijing.