Earthquake could cost Turkey up to $84bn

Turkey's worst earthquake in almost a century has left a trail of destruction that could cost Ankara up to $84.1bn, according to a report by the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation. 

The breakdown of the cost was estimated at $70.8bn from the repair of thousands of homes, $10.4bn from the loss of national income and $2.9bn from the loss of working days.

In the coming months and years the main challenges the report said would be rebuilding housing, transmission lines and infrastructure, and meeting the short, medium and long-term shelter needs of the hundreds of thousands left homeless.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the state will complete housing reconstruction within a year and the government was preparing a programme to "make the country stand up again".

Some 13.4 million people live in the 10 provinces by hit by the quake, or 15 percent of Turkey's population, and it produces close to 10 percent of GDP.