China’s Government: Natural Disasters Cost $3.3 Billion in First Quarter

FILE PHOTO: Paramilitary police officers remove snow from a road following snowfall in Beijing, China February 21, 2024. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Paramilitary police officers remove snow from a road following snowfall in Beijing, China February 21, 2024. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
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China’s Government: Natural Disasters Cost $3.3 Billion in First Quarter

FILE PHOTO: Paramilitary police officers remove snow from a road following snowfall in Beijing, China February 21, 2024. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Paramilitary police officers remove snow from a road following snowfall in Beijing, China February 21, 2024. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo

Floods, droughts, an earthquake and freezing conditions in China caused direct economic losses of 23.76 billion yuan ($3.28 billion) in the first quarter, the government said on Saturday.

The emergency management ministry cited damage from several cold spells, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, landslides in Yunnan province in the southwest and flooding on the Yellow River.

The disasters killed 79 people while 110,000 needed emergency relocation and resettlement and 10.4 million people across 26 regions and provinces were affected in the period, the ministry said in a report, according to Reuters.

Other natural disasters included a drought in the southwest affecting 424,000 hectares (10,500 acres) of crops, sandstorms in the northwest and forest fires in the southwest and south.

Last year natural disasters in China caused 345.45 billion yuan ($47.7 billion) of direct economic losses, with 691 people dead or missing, the ministry reported in January.

In January the ministry said it plans a three-year campaign to tackle problems hampering response times during disasters and accidents, including production safety lapses in sectors like mining.



Egypt's GDP Growth at 4.3% in Second Quarter vs 2.3% a Year Earlier

Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo's El Matareya district peer from their balconies to celebrate a mass break-fast, "Iftar" during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)
Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo's El Matareya district peer from their balconies to celebrate a mass break-fast, "Iftar" during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)
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Egypt's GDP Growth at 4.3% in Second Quarter vs 2.3% a Year Earlier

Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo's El Matareya district peer from their balconies to celebrate a mass break-fast, "Iftar" during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)
Residents of Ezbet Hamada in Cairo's El Matareya district peer from their balconies to celebrate a mass break-fast, "Iftar" during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP)

Egypt's GDP growth rate increased to 4.3% in the second quarter of its 2024/25 year compared with 2.3% in the same period a year earlier, the planning ministry said on Wednesday.

GDP grew along with total investments, though public investments were below 40% of the total. Several sectors supported growth, including non-oil manufacturing activity, which was up by 17.74%, and tourism activity, which surged 18%. The fiscal year began on July 1.

Some sectors contracted in the second quarter of fiscal 2024/25, including the Suez Canal, where activity fell by 70%.

Extraction activity growth fell 9.2%, on the back of oil extraction activity, which slipped 7.6% and gas by 19.6%.