The World Bank estimates the damage caused by earthquakes in Turkey at around USD 34 billion. But the actual costs can be two to three times higher because rebuilding costs more money than what has been lost in housing and infrastructure.
According to the World Bank, more than half of the damage is caused by homes, but the damage to infrastructure such as railways is also “extensive”. The world’s largest financier for development cooperation thinks that the earthquakes at the beginning of this month will cost the Turkish economy half a percent growth this year. An earlier estimate put that growth at 3.5 to 4 percent.
An earlier estimate by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) assumed that the earthquakes would cost the Turkish economy a maximum of 1 percent in economic growth. With that, the organization was already much more conservative in its prognosis than the Turkish business association Turkonfed, which estimated the damage at about one-tenth of the Turkish economy.
The natural disaster killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria. The World Bank will release an estimate of the damage in Syria on Tuesday.
