Pakistan: New estimates place flood losses at USD 28 billion

Pakistan flood

Islamabad, Sep 27 (PTI) The catastrophic floods that hit Pakistan has caused the country a whopping USD 28 billion in damages and it might take 2 to 10 years for the long-term construction of the areas affected by the unprecedented calamity, the media reported on Tuesday, quoting a revised estimate.

According to Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) in the wake of the floods that have killed more than 1,600 dead and left thousands injured since mid-June, Pakistan has seen a 5 per cent upsurge in poverty, indicating that about 9 to 12 million people might fall below the poverty line.

About 1.8 to 2 million jobs have been lost due to the climate-change-induced calamity and average inflation in the cash-strapped country might touch the 23-25 per cent mark in the current fiscal year, the Dawn newspaper cited the government data as saying.