Cyclone disaster costs Sri Lanka $38 billion

TT

Updated 17.30 | Published 17.24

 

Residents inspect the destruction after Cyclone Ditwah in Hanguranketha, Sri Lanka, in late November. Archive photo. Photo: Lakshmen Neelawathura/AP/TT

The World Bank estimates that the severe Cyclone Ditwah's advance in Sri Lanka costs the country $4.1 billion, equivalent to nearly 38 billion kronor.

Ditwah struck Sri Lanka in November and claimed at least 640 lives in the storm and subsequent floods and landslides. The material damage is also extensive, as both infrastructure, buildings and agricultural areas were severely affected.

Several countries in the region were also hit by the hurricane, with over 1,000 confirmed deaths in total.

The World Bank on Monday estimated the extent of the damage, and the destruction amounts to a value equivalent to four percent of the country's gross domestic product. In real terms, this is the equivalent of almost 38 billion kronor in material values.

About a quarter of the destruction in economic terms concerns buildings.

The calculation "does not include income losses, or loss of production; nor does it include the full cost of reconstruction," the World Bank writes.