Direct damages of Turkiye earthquakes equivalent to 4% of GDP: World Bank

At least 1.25 million people have lost their homes due to the earthquakes

The direct damages of the earthquakes in Turkiye are expected to cost $34.2 billion, the World Bank said. This will equal 4 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The recovery and reconstruction costs might additionally be "potentially twice as large".

As of February 19, over 41,020 people have died in the earthquakes, making it the most lethal since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake.

In its Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) Report, released on Monday, World Bank said, "The direct damages are dominated by damages to residential buildings (53 per cent of the total), followed by damages to