World Bank raises Philippine typhoon aid package to almost $1 billion

Survivors walk near a ship that ran aground after Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city, November 22, 2013. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

MANILA (Reuters) - The World Bank said it raised to almost $1 billion (£616.2 million) its financial aid package to support relief and reconstruction in typhoon-devastated areas in the central Philippines, as the toll of death and destruction kept rising more than two weeks after the storm.

The World Bank said it offered $480 million on top of a $500 million emergency loan it committed earlier to the Philippines, with the additional funds to be used for the early rebuilding of communities and crucial infrastructure such as water, rural roads, schools and clinics.