More than half a million jobs have been lost in the last three months of 2008 in India, including in gems and jewelry, autos and textiles, according to the report.

Many of the world’s poorest countries are becoming ever more dependent on development assistance as their exports and fiscal revenues decline because of the crisis.

Donors are already behind by around US$39 billion on their commitments to increase aid made at the Gleneagles Summit in 2005.

The concern now is that aid flows will become more volatile as some countries cut their aid budgets while others reaffirm aid commitments, at least for this year.

In remarks prepared for delivery at a conference in London organized by Britain’s Department for International Development on Monday, World Bank Chief Economist and Senior Vice President Justin Yifu Lin said developed countries should spend some of their fiscal stimulus in developing countries as the economic effect could be significant.

"Clearly, fiscal resources do have to be injected in rich countries that are at the epicenter of the crisis, but channeling infrastructure investment to the developing world where it can release bottlenecks to growth and quickly restore demand can have an even bigger bang for the buck and should be a key element to recovery," Lin said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2009)