Nepal rebuilding after floods may cost a tenth of economy

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.

(Reporting by Saurabh Sharma; Writing by Sakshi Dayal and Aftab Ahmed; Editing by YP Rajesh)