By no measure does the economic damage in the Andaman Sea come even close to the human tragedy : only 100 million Euro - this is the estimated cost for the world's biggest reinsurance company, the Munich Re. Sad reason : Many people in the Andaman Sea simply cannot afford to buy insurance policies. Similarly small should be the overall economic damage in the end.  "The death toll is  tragic and high, "comments Prof. Dr. Ruediger Akhotmee from the University of Applied Sciences, Deggendorf, Germany,  "but the negative consequences for the local economies will be offset by the  investments for reconstruction.  "For example :The Thai Government alone allocated some 520 Million Euro for the reconstruction in the affected provinces at the west coast of the kingdom.  The economic growth rates of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and India should hardly get drastically affected - this due to the relatively low relevance of the tourism sector (see graph) compared to the overall gross domestic product (GDP).  Only Sri Lanka, which just started to pick up after many years of civil war, will most likely see its economy to slow down seriously : 2005 GDP growth forecast is now down to 4% compared with last year, compared with 5% before the Tsunami hit.  Already before the giant wave, 2004 was with an overall insured damage of 40 Million USD in the category of natural catastrophes by far the most expensive in the entire insurance history.  90% of the damages were stemming from weather disasters.  With "Charley" and "Ivan" , two of the three most severe hurricanes ever measured in history rampaged through the Caribbean Sea and Florida.  No surprise that Stefan Heyd, CEO of Munich Re presses for "swift and forceful measures against the global change of climate".  After the disappointing result of the Buenos Aires summit,  time gets short and shorter.

Bernhard Thurnbauer, Factorytalk Thailand, Jan 7, 2005
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