Turkey estimates earthquakes loss over $105 bn

Ankara, March 18

An official report has estimated that the twin earthquakes that hit southern Turkey on February 6 cost approximately 2 trillion Turkish liras (about $105.2 billion) for the country.

The report, announced by Turkey's Treasury and Finance Ministry and prepared by the presidency's department of strategy and budget, predicted that the financial burden caused by the tragic tremors could reach approximately 9 percent of the national income in 2023, Xinhua news agency reported.

The study noted that the support expenditures made to the earthquake area cost a total of 351 billion liras (about $18.5 billion) in national income.

Housing damage took the lion's share in the earthquake's total burden on the Turkish economy with 54.9 percent, and the monetary value was calculated as 1.07 trillion liras (about $56.4 billion).

The second largest cause of damage loss was the destruction of public infrastructure and service buildings, with estimated 242.5 billion liras (about $12.7 billion).

Private sector damage, excluding housing, was calculated as 222.4 billion liras (about $11.7 billion). This item included damage to manufacturing, energy, communication, tourism, health and education sectors.

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Turkey's southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT) on February 6, followed by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake at 1:24 p.m. local time (1024 GMT) in the Kahramanmaras Province.

The death toll of the quakes which affected 11 provinces of Turkey exceeded 48,000 while leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.