Losses from China disasters reach US$42bil in first nine months of 2023

Workers are seen on a flooded street in Shenzhen, in China's Guangdong province on Sept 8, 2023, after the city recorded the heaviest rains since records began in 1952. - AFP

BEIJING (Reuters): China suffered direct economic losses of 308.29 billion yuan (US$42 billion) over the first nine months of 2023, the government said, from natural disasters such as torrential rains, deadly landslides, freakish hailstorms and a string of typhoons.

The emergency management ministry unveiled on Sunday (Oct 8) the unprecedented toll wrought on the nation of 1.4 billion by calamities that ranged from sandstorms to rains that brought massive flooding and historic rainfall in Beijing, the capital.