The global financial crisis may impact on Eskom's expansion plans, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said in an interview published on Thursday.

He said borrowing plans by the power utility would probably be affected.

"It's going to be a lot tougher and may impact on the cost of infrastructure," Manuel told Business Day newspaper.

Construction work ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup could also be affected, he added.

"Building costs are a huge threat to what we want to do. I'm not too concerned but we need to be watching it," said Manuel.

Transport and power

Business Day said more than R500-billion have been budgeted to improve transport and power infrastructure.

South African banks were equipped to deal with the global financial crisis but they might experience restrictions in terms of access to foreign exchange.

Manuel said the crisis would spark a new way of thinking in the financial world.

"The bottom line is that in the next while — and it's not going to be six months or a year but probably two years — there will probably be enormous recalibration of what we do and how we finance it," said Manuel.

Sapa