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Chile + 5 more

Cost of natural disasters $109 billion in 2010-U.N.

  • Developing countries shoulder rising costs from disasters

* Earthquakes, floods cost $109 bln in 2010 vs $35 bln 2009

* Decaying infrastructure described as risk in urban areas

By Laura MacInnis

GENEVA, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Natural disasters caused $109 billion in economic damage last year, three times more than in 2009, with Chile and China bearing most of the cost, the United Nations said on Monday.

The 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile in February cost $30 billion. Landslides and floods last summer in China caused $18 billion in losses, data compiled by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) showed.

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