GLOBAL spending on capital projects and infrastructure will shift from West to East, and jump to more than US$9 trillion a year by 2025, according to a forecast released yesterday by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

    The growth will be driven by China, which overtook the United States as the top spender on capital and infrastructure in 2009, PwC said. Globally, this investment spending stood at just US$4 trillion in 2012.

    “Emerging markets, especially China and other countries in Asia, without the burden of recovering from a financial crisis, will see much faster growth in infrastructure spending,” Richard Abadie, global capital projects and infrastructure leader at PwC, said in a prepared statement.

    About US$78 trillion is expected to be spent on capital projects and infrastructure globally between now and 2025, according to the study.

    Availability of funding and government finances, demographic factors, urbanization and natural resource endowments will all drive future infrastructure spending, PwC said.(SD-Agencies)