By Jesús Aguado
MADRID (Reuters) – Last month’s catastrophic floods in eastern Spain are likely to have a negative impact of 0.2 percentage points on the country’s gross domestic product in the fourth quarter, the Bank of Spain said on Wednesday.
More than 200 people died in the deadliest flooding in Spain’s modern history on Oct. 29, most of them in the region of Valencia, where the flood-hit areas account for around 2% of Spain’s economic activity.
“Estimates are subject to significant uncertainty, but, based on previous weather-related events, the estimated impact on GDP is -0.2 pp in the current quarter, remaining negative one year later,” the central bank said in a presentation.
The Spanish government has announced a 14.36 billion euros aid package to help households and businesses cope with the economic impact from the floods.
Before the floods, the government had expected the Spanish economy to grow 2.7% this year, by far outperforming its European peers.
(Reporting by Jesus Aguado and Emma Pinedo, editing by Andrei Khalipdauro)
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