According to a business group cited by Bloomberg, the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday could have caused $84 billion in damage in Turkey alone. The figure provided by the group is significantly higher than previous estimates.
On Sunday, Bloomberg reported the likely price tag, citing an unnamed “Turkish business group.” Fitch Ratings, based in the United States, stated earlier this week that economic losses “appear likely to exceed $2 billion” and could reach $4 billion or more. ” According to Bank of America, the figure is around $3-5 billion, plus “at least another $2-3 billion required for assisting impacted people.”
A price tag of $84 billion would be more than ten times Turkey’s GDP.
On Monday morning, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the province of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, followed by a magnitude 7.6 quake in nearby Kahramanmaras Province. According to a government tally on Saturday evening, the earthquakes caused widespread devastation in nine Turkish provinces and neighboring Syria, killing 22,327 people and injuring 80,278.
In Syria, the combined death toll from the Damascus government and militant groups in the affected areas exceeds 3,500.
The earthquakes were the most powerful to hit Turkey since the Erzincan earthquake of 1939, which killed an estimated 32,000 people and injured 100,000. In 1999, the most devastating earthquake to strike Turkey in recent years struck Kocaeli Province, killing over 17,000 people.
