An analysis of 197 countries by a British risk consultancy Maplecroft ranked India fifth in the Natural Hazards Relative Economic Exposure Index, adding that it is at risk as huge areas in the country are undergoing sustained drought, which is having a significant impact on agricultural outputs.
Bangladesh, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Myanmar, Vietnam, Honduras, Laos and Haiti and Nicaragua were among other countries with the greatest proportion of their economic output exposed to natural hazards such as flooding, earthquakes and tropical cyclones.
These nations also demonstrated poor capability to recover from a significant event exposing investments in these countries to risk of supply chain and market disruptions, according to a Maplecroft statement.
High levels of economic exposure, coupled with weak resilience, means that the fallout of a large natural disaster would likely be felt keenest in these countries, it said.
"Given the exposure of key financial and manufacturing centres, the occurrence of a major event would be very likely to have significant impacts on the total economic output of these countries, as well as foreign business," Helen Hodge, Maplecroft's Head of Maps and Indices said.
The study identified Japan, US, China, Taiwan and Mexico as having the highest economic exposure to natural hazards in absolute terms.
However, huge economies such as Japan had the capacity to recover relatively quickly from natural disasters due to entrenched resilience factors including: economic strength, strong governance, established infrastructures and disaster preparedness.
