KATHMANDU: Nepal was already slowing before a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed thousands from the capital to the unforgiving slopes of Mount Everest. Now near-term growth is set to contract without the world’s help.
“Kathmandu is central to the nation’s economy, and it’s crippled,” Madhukar SJB Rana, a former finance minister, said in a phone interview on Sunday after spending the night outdoors amid countless aftershocks. “The extent of the impact depends both on the magnitude of the disaster but also on the resources and capacity to cope. We don’t have that.”
So far about 2,900 people have died, a figure set to climb as rescuers dig through rubble. The quake split roads, downed power lines, toppled buildings and triggered avalanches that killed at least 19 on Everest — a key driver of tourism in an economy also dependent on agriculture and remittances.
Nepal, one of Asia’s poorest countries whose gross domestic product is smaller than any of the 50 U.S. states, has little scope to fund a major reconstruction effort on its own. Even before the quake, the Asian Development Bank estimated that it needs to spend about four times more than it currently does annually on infrastructure through 2020 to attract investment.
The U.S. Geological Survey initially estimated economic losses from the temblor at 9 percent to 50 percent of gross domestic product, with a best guess of 35 percent. It’s too hard for now to tell the extent of the damage and the effect on Nepal’s GDP, according to Hun Kim, an ADB official.
