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Haiti reconstruction cost may near $14 billion: IADB
A woman sweeps a busy street in downtown Port-au-Prince, February 16, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The cost of rebuilding impoverished Haiti after last month's catastrophic earthquake could reach nearly $14 billion, making it proportionately the most destructive natural disaster in modern times, economists at the Inter-American Development Bank said on Tuesday.
Their study, which takes into account the magnitude of the January 12 disaster, the number of fatalities and Haiti's population and per capita GDP, raises previous damage estimates from the quake to between $8 billion and $14 billion.
The IADB economists said the Haitian earthquake was especially destructive when viewed in relation to the Caribbean country's population of nearly 10 million and to its already weak and impoverished economy.
The quake also struck the capital city Port-au-Prince, the center of the country's commerce, government and communications, destroying or damaging the presidential palace, the national cathedral, churches and government buildings.
In the IADB study, economists Andrew Powell, Eduardo Cavallo and Oscar Becerra calculated a base estimate of $8.1 billion in damages estimated for a 250,000 dead-or-missing toll.
But they estimated this figure was likely to be at the low end and concluded that an estimate of $13.9 billion damages was within the statistical margin of error.
The IADB study said the Haitian government had reported 230,000 dead as of February 10.
"While the results are subject to many caveats, the study confirms that the Haitian earthquake is likely to be the most destructive natural disaster in modern times, when viewed in relation to the size of the Haiti's population and its economy," the IADB economists said.
They added that in this respect, the Haitian quake was much more destructive than the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004, whose damages were estimated at just over $5 billion, according to the study. Haiti's disaster also caused five times more deaths per million inhabitants than the second-ranking natural killer, the 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua, the study added.
But a detailed accounting of the cost of Haiti's reconstruction still had to be drawn up, it said.
"RETHINK" HAITI
Read more at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F43Z20100216
Credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The cost of rebuilding impoverished Haiti after last month's catastrophic earthquake could reach nearly $14 billion, making it proportionately the most destructive natural disaster in modern times, economists at the Inter-American Development Bank said on Tuesday.
Their study, which takes into account the magnitude of the January 12 disaster, the number of fatalities and Haiti's population and per capita GDP, raises previous damage estimates from the quake to between $8 billion and $14 billion.
The IADB economists said the Haitian earthquake was especially destructive when viewed in relation to the Caribbean country's population of nearly 10 million and to its already weak and impoverished economy.
The quake also struck the capital city Port-au-Prince, the center of the country's commerce, government and communications, destroying or damaging the presidential palace, the national cathedral, churches and government buildings.
In the IADB study, economists Andrew Powell, Eduardo Cavallo and Oscar Becerra calculated a base estimate of $8.1 billion in damages estimated for a 250,000 dead-or-missing toll.
But they estimated this figure was likely to be at the low end and concluded that an estimate of $13.9 billion damages was within the statistical margin of error.
The IADB study said the Haitian government had reported 230,000 dead as of February 10.
"While the results are subject to many caveats, the study confirms that the Haitian earthquake is likely to be the most destructive natural disaster in modern times, when viewed in relation to the size of the Haiti's population and its economy," the IADB economists said.
They added that in this respect, the Haitian quake was much more destructive than the Indonesian Tsunami of 2004, whose damages were estimated at just over $5 billion, according to the study. Haiti's disaster also caused five times more deaths per million inhabitants than the second-ranking natural killer, the 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua, the study added.
But a detailed accounting of the cost of Haiti's reconstruction still had to be drawn up, it said.
"RETHINK" HAITI
Read more at:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61F43Z20100216