New private infrastructure activity indeveloping countries recovered selectively in the thirdquarter of 2009. This review of new PPI projects sheds somelight on recent activity and on the short-term impact of thefinancial crisis. Projects reaching financial or contractualclosure face more difficult financial market conditions.Local state-owned banks, as well as multilateral andbilateral agencies, continue to be key financiers, andinfrastructure sponsors are looking for new sources offunding such as local financing. Projects continue to bedelayed or, to a lesser extent, canceled. The rate ofproject closure varies across developing regions, withinvestment in the third quarter higher in South Asia, stablein Latin America and East Asia and Pacific, and lower in theother three. The rate also varies across country incomegroups, with investment in the third quarter higher inlower-middle-income countries, stable in upper-middle-incomecountries, and lower in low-income countries. Greenfieldprojects continue to show growth in investment (and debtraised), while concessions and divestitures show a decline.Developing countries continue to tender and award new PPIprojects. In conclusion, PPI investments have recovered inonly few economies. While these success stories have boostedthe totals, the vast majority of developing countries remainseverely affected by the crisis. If large projects (US$1billion or more) were excluded, almost all developingregions would have seen investment decline in the firstthree quarters of 2009 compared with the same period of2008. South Asia was the only exception, thanks to the highlevel of activity in India. Among sectors, energy is theonly one where investment grew for all project sizes, thanksto the activity in new power plants. There is also evidenceof new projects being postponed and canceled because of thefinancial crisis.
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