Indonesia Hit With $5.2 Billion In Forest-fire Losses: World Bank

Forest fires that raged across Indonesia dented Southeast Asia's biggest economy to the tune of some $5.2 billion, the World Bank said Wednesday, not including the health impacts from toxic haze that sent air quality plummeting

Jakarta, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Dec, 2019 ):Forest fires that raged across Indonesia dented Southeast Asia's biggest economy to the tune of some $5.2 billion, the World Bank said Wednesday, not including the health impacts from toxic haze that sent air quality plummeting.

The fires are an annual problem but this year was the worst since 2015 due to dry weather, with 942,000 hectares (2.3 million acres) of land, mostly on Sumatra and Borneo islands, razed by the out-of-control blazes.

Authorities deployed tens of thousands of personnel and water-bombing aircraft to tackle the slash-and-burn blazes set to clear agricultural land, including on palm oil and pulp plantations.

On Wednesday, the World Bank said the economy took a hit of some $5.2 billion, equal to about 0.5 percent of gross domestic product.

That included $157 million in direct damage and another $5 billion from losses in the agriculture, industry, trade, tourism, transportation and environmental sectors, according to the Washington-based bank.

A dozen airports and hundreds of schools in Indonesia -- as well as neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore -- closed temporarily, while more than 900,000 people reported respiratory illnesses, it said.