Natural disaster damage hits 4-year high

Natural disasters including storms and earthquakes caused $175 billion of damage in 2016, German reinsurance giant Munich Re said yesterday, highest level since 2012.

While the year saw a two-thirds increase in the financial impact of catastrophes around the world, casualties from natural disasters were far lower in 2016 than the previous year, at 8,700 deaths compared with 25,400.

Munich Re pointed to two earthquakes on the Japanese island of Kyushu in April and floods in China in June and July as the most devastating natural events, inflicting costs of $31 billion in Japan and $20 billion in China.