ECLAC STUDY ON IMPACT OF JANUARY EARTHQUAKE IN COLOMBIA TO BE PRESENTED TO PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA

30 April 1999

Press Release
REC/43

ECLAC STUDY ON IMPACT OF JANUARY EARTHQUAKE IN COLOMBIA TO BE PRESENTED TO PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA

19990430 SANTIAGO, 29 April (ECLAC) -- Economic losses caused by the earthquake which hit Colombia's coffee-growing region on 25 January this year amounted to 17 per cent of the value of the country's exports in 1998, according to an Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) study carried out at the request of the country's Government. Given the nature and extent of the damage, it will take between four to five years to recover these losses, while indirect effects will last for several years. The study, El terremoto de enero de 1999 en Colombia: efectos socio- economicos en el eje cafetero y en el país, was prepared by an interdisciplinary team of six ECLAC experts and will be presented to President Andrés Pastrana tomorrow, Friday, 30 April, by José Antonio Ocampo, Executive Secretary of ECLAC. The report establishes the magnitude of direct and indirect damage, assesses secondary macroeconomic effects, and attempts to quantify the varying impact by departments and in the country as a whole. Total damage is calculated at $1,857 million. The effects of the earthquake were felt most in the western departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda, Tolima and Valle del Cauca, which are among the most densely populated in the country. Social sectors were most affected, with 73 per cent of the damage concentrated in housing. Losses in productive sectors accounted for under 12 per cent of the whole. At the national level, 1 per cent of the population was affected, and damage amounted to the equivalent of just over 2.2 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Production losses were estimated at 0.19 per cent of GDP. Growth projections for the Colombian economy in 1999 are not being revised as a result of the earthquake. However, it is likely that production in the coffee region will fall. The ECLAC study underlines the limited character of any purely economic evaluation, proposing that reconstruction include social elements which can "contribute to alleviating the suffering of population groups which were already suffering the effects of depression due to the relative recession affecting the national economy, especially coffee". Consequently, the report emphasizes the need for socially productive investment, carried out according to criteria of sustainability and governability. This report is available, in Spanish only, at web site "www.eclac.cl". For further information, contact Ricardo Zapata, e-mail: rzapata@un.org.mx.

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