SINGAPORE (AP) — Japan may need five years to rebuild from thecatastrophic earthquake and tsunami that has caused up to $235billion of damage, the World Bank said Monday.

The March 11 disaster — which killed more than 18,000 people andravaged northeastern Japan — will likely shave up to 0.5 percentagepoint from the country's economic growth this year, the bank saidin a report. The impact will be concentrated in the first half ofthe year, it said.

"Damage to housing and infrastructure has been unprecedented,"the World Bank said. "Growth should pick up though in subsequentquarters as reconstruction efforts, which could last five years,accelerate."

Related: News, Analysis, and Images from the Japan Earthquakeand Tsunami

The bank cited damage estimates between $123 billion and $235billion, and cost to private insurers of between $14 billion and$33 billion. It said the government will spend $12 billion onreconstruction in the current national budget and "much more" inthe next one.

It said a crippled nuclear power station in the northeast thatauthorities are racing to regain control of is an unfoldingsituation that poses uncertainties and challenges. Traces ofradiation first detected in spinach and milk from farms near thenuclear plant are turning up farther away in tap water, rain andeven dust. In all cases, the government said the radiation levelswere too small to pose an immediate risk to health.

A short-term drop in Japan's consumer demand and manufacturingproduction will also hurt trade with regional neighbors, the banksaid. South Korean electronics companies have seen the price ofsome memory chips from Japan rise 20 percent because of disruptedproduction, while Thai car exporters may run out of Japanese autoparts next month, it said.

"Disruptionto production networks, especially in automotive andelectronics industries, could continue to pose problems," the banksaid. "Japan is a major producer of parts, components and capitalgoods which supply East Asia's production chains."

Japan's northeast, the epicenter of the disaster, is home toports, steel mills, oil refineries, nuclear power plants andmanufacturers of auto and electronics components. Many of thosefacilities have been damaged, while nationwide power shortages haveseverely crimped auto and electronics production.

The World Bank said in a separate report Monday that economicgrowth in developing East Asian countries will likely slow thisyear as central banks raise interest rates to battle inflationpressure from rising food and energy prices.

The bank expects developing East Asia, led by China, to expand8.2 percent this year and 7.9 percent next year from 9.6 percent in2010. China's economy, the world's second biggest, will likely grow9 percent in 2011 from 10.3 percent in 2010, the bank said. It saidthe forecasts were calculated before the 9.0-magnitude earthquakeand tsunami.

The bank said central bankers in the region have been slow toattack the threat of quickening inflation from higher commodityprices, and urged policymakers to ease emergency governmentspending programs implemented during 2009's global economicrecession.

"Tighter monetary policies, including higher policy rates, areneeded across the region in varying degrees to pre-empt the recentrise in food and other prices from exacerbating inflationexpectations," the bank said. "At the same time, governments needto allow their discretionary fiscal stimulus packages tolapse."

About 51 million people were lifted out of poverty — thoseliving on less than $2 per day — in developing East Asia last year,lowering the region's poverty rate to 27 percent, or about 500million people, the bank said.

Developing East Asia includes China, Indonesia, Malaysia, thePhilippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Fiji, Laos, Mongolia andPapua New Guinea.