Infra investment in recession key to growth: WB

The recession may trigger curtailemnt in spending, but increasing investment in public infrastructure during a crisis is the key to growth for emerging economies like India, the World Bank has said.

"In India, the need for infrastructure investment is widely recognised as a critical priority for ensuring more and more inclusive growth and poverty reduction," World Bank Vice-President Katherine Sierra has said in a bank publication.

Infrastructure projects often take years to prepare, but "postponing them has a drastic knock-on effect for medium term growth", she added.

Terming the cut in public infrastructure spending by many countries during the Asian financial crisis as "a short-sighted solution", Sierra said the move made emerging from recession all the more difficult.

Many countries today, from the US to Russia to China, plan to accelerate infrastructure spending to respond to the crisis, she pointed out.

In India, inadequate power supply remains a key constraint hampering businesses in many areas.