New Delhi: Describing the impacts of Iraq war and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) as "temporary shocks", the World Bank has said the removal of sanctions, rising oil production and the reconstruction boom in Iraq could create valuable business opportunities in construction, engineering, Information Technology (IT) and healthcare services.

The Iraq crisis has already affected world activity through surge in oil prices, heightened domestic political tensions in Middle East, South Asia and parts of East Asia, including the possibility of renewed terrorist attacks and a fall in world tourism, World Bank said in its 'East Asia Update -- Looking beyond short-term shocks' report.

"Like the Iraq crisis, SARS is in principle a temporary shock," it said.

The two effects would result in lower economic growth globally, especially in East Asia where Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has been pegged down by 1.0 per cent to 5.0 per cent in 2003.

The World Bank's warning assumes significance as countries like India may witness lower growth in tourism, IT, merchandise exports and investments from the East Asian nations in 2003.

On the other hand, it said "SARS sparked extra-ordinarily public concerns throughout East Asia and more widely in the world."

The worst affected industries in the short run are tourism, transportation and retail sales.

"While we had expected East Asian growth to accelerate a little in 2003, we now expect it to fall by almost 1.0 per cent to 5.0 per cent, before rebounding smartly in 2004," the report added.

PTI