The earthquakes that ripped through Syria in early February caused direct damage of $5.1 billion (€4.803 billion), equivalent to 10% of Syrian GDP, the World Bank has preliminarily quantified.
The report highlights that there were four provinces that suffered significant damage, and in which some 10 million people reside. Of these, Aleppo, with 4.2 million inhabitants, has registered damages of 2,300 million dollars (2,166 million euros). In Idlib and Latakia, losses are $1.9 billion (€1.789 billion) and $549 million (€517 million), respectively.
The World Bank cautions that lost profits from damaged infrastructure and buildings have not been quantified and will need to be further assessed. In addition, the impact on artistic pieces or protected architectural ensembles has been excluded from the calculation due to the difficulty in estimating damages in these cases.
The agency estimates that 48.5% of the damage affected residential buildings and another 33.5% affected non-residential buildings, of which many are schools or health centers. The remaining 18% damaged transportation, water, electrical or telecommunications infrastructures.
»These losses add to the years of destruction, suffering and hardship that the Syrian people have faced in recent times. This disaster will cause a drop in economic activity that will further condition Syria’s growth prospects,» lamented Jean-Christophe Carret, director of the World Bank’s Middle East department.
The institution resulting from the Bretton Woods agreements already published last Monday a similar memorandum on the situation in Turkey, where it highlighted that the direct damage there amounted to 34.2 billion dollars (32.206 million euros).
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
