The World Bank said in a report that “the GDP contraction is expected to increase by 2.3 percentage points” in Syria, noting that economic growth may witness “more contraction if reconstruction slows down.”
The report added that “the additional contraction is due primarily to the destruction of physical capital and the disruption of commercial activity.”
Among the elements that could exacerbate the repercussions on the economy, the report pointed to “limited public resources, weak private investment, and lack of humanitarian aid reaching the affected areas.”
The report stresses that the earthquake-affected area was already exhausted by the civil war that broke out in the country in 2011.
“The recent earthquake in Syria exacerbates the dire repercussions of the conflict that the Syrian people have been living through for 12 years,” said Jean-Christophe Carré, Regional Director for the Middle East at the World Bank. “The World Bank hopes that this assessment will help put the data related to this devastating disaster under the action of key stakeholders, and contribute to encouraging international response efforts.”
According to the Rapid Assessment Report of the Damage and Needs Resulting from the Earthquake in Syria for the year 2023, “the material damage resulting from the earthquake is estimated at $3.7 billion, while the losses are estimated at about $1.5 billion, bringing the total value of damages and losses to $5.2 billion.”
As for recovery and reconstruction needs, according to the report, they are estimated at about $7.9 billion over three years.
The World Bank expected that “the inflation rate will increase by a high rate, and the main reason for that is a shortage of available goods, an increase in transportation costs, and an increase in the overall demand for reconstruction materials.”
The death toll from the earthquake reached about 6,000 people in Syria, which has been ravaged by an ongoing civil war since 2011 that has claimed the lives of nearly half a million people, displaced millions of Syrians and destroyed infrastructure.
In Turkey, the earthquake killed more than 50,000 people.
© 2023 AFP
