* World stocks down half a percent to one-month low
* Turkish Lira down 7 pct, Turkey CDS highest since 2008
* Worries grow on euro zone bank exposure to Turkey
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2018 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
By Abhinav Ramnarayan
LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - World markets shuddered on Monday, as Turkey's worsening currency crisis persuaded investors to dump equities and emerging markets and flee to safer assets such as government bonds and the dollar.
The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks shares in 47 countries, was down 0.5 percent on Monday and 1.6 percent since Friday's open as the Turkish lira plunged to a record low, forcing the country's finance minister to announce an economic action plan to ease nerves lira has tumbled on worries over Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's increasing control over the economy and deteriorating relations with the United States. It fell as much as 12 percent at one stage on TRY= Monday, then recovered to a loss of 7 percent by 0800 GMT.
"There's a risk-off mood generally triggered by the Turkish currency sell off, and we are seeing a wider sell-off now, and it's looking pretty ugly in other emerging markets as well," said Investec economist Philip Shaw.
He pointed to the South African rand ZAR= and the Mexican peso, both down about 2.5 percent on Monday, as two examples of emerging markets hit by contagion.
"The plunge in the lira, which began in May, now looks certain to push the Turkish economy into recession, and it may well trigger a banking crisis," said Andrew Kenningham, chief global economist at Capital Economics. "This would be another blow for EMs as an asset class."
Turkish credit default swaps - a hedge against financial turbulence - surged to their highest since the 2008 global financial crisis as the lira took its latest dive HIT
The euro zone has also been hit by Turkish woes, particularly after a report by the Financial Times last week suggested the European Central Bank is increasingly concerned about euro zone banks with exposure to Turkey euro EUR= fell to a one-year low against the dollar on Monday and sank to a one-year trough against the Swiss franc EURCHF= as well. It hit a 10-week low to the yen around 125.45 EURJPY= .
European stocks fell in early trade on Monday, with a pan-European index of shares .STOXX down half a percent and the banking stock index .SX7E as much as 1.2 percent lower.
This after MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dropped 1.5 percent to a near one-year low. Japan's Nikkei .N225 lost 2.0 percent with every bourse in the region in the red.
Safe-haven government bonds were in demand, with yields on German 10-year debt, the benchmark for the euro zone, dropping to a one-month low DE10YT=RR . Overnight, U.S. Treasury 10-year yields also dipped to the lowest in just over three weeks at 2.85 percent US10YT=RR .
Copper prices, meanwhile, often seen as a proxy for global economic growth, were down 1 percent at $6,131 a tonne. other commodity markets, gold was last down half a percent at $1,204 an ounce XAU= .
Oil prices fell, with Brent crude LCOc1 off 25 cents at $72.56 a barrel and U.S. crude CLc1 21 cents lower at $67.43.
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