EXCLUSIVE-Nepal's flood damage may cost up to a tenth of economy to rebuild

Nepal may ‌need $4 billion to $5 billion to rebuild after this week's devastating floods, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle told Reuters on Saturday, a bill equal to nearly a tenth of ‌the economy. "The initial estimate is between $4-$5 billion. Just an estimate," Wagle said. "We ‌will require much less than what we needed for the 2015 earthquake. Loss and damage is being assessed."

A glacier collapse on Wednesday unleashed a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud ⁠and debris ​through Himalayan ⁠mountain river systems, killing more than 600 people in Nepal and China's Tibet, with more than ⁠2,000 still unaccounted for. The flood levelled towns in the border area, sweeping away bridges ​and roads and damaging major hydropower stations.

Wagle did not elaborate on ⁠why the reconstruction bill was expected to be less than the $9 billion spent after the ⁠2015 magnitude-7.8 ​quake, Nepal's worst recorded disaster. It killed nearly 9,000 people, destroyed more than half a million homes and caused losses estimated at around ⁠a third of Nepal's economy. Wednesday's floods will nevertheless be a major blow to ⁠an economy reliant on ⁠remittances, tourism and hydropower, damaging power projects that account for more than 12% of national generating capacity.