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Munich (dpa) - The worldwide damage due to natural disasters increased in the past year.
Around the globe, storms, floods, earthquakes and other catastrophes have caused economic losses of 210 billion dollars (around 170 billion euros).
The previous year it was $ 166 billion.
This is what the experts at reinsurer Munich Re calculated for the company's new natural disaster report published on Thursday.
The United States was particularly hard hit, with hurricanes, series of severe thunderstorms and forest fires alone causing $ 95 billion - six of the ten most costly natural disasters hit the United States.
Europe got away with relatively minor damage of 12 billion dollars. There are still no figures for the earthquake in Croatia on December 29, but Munich Re estimates that the damage was rather limited, as the region around the epicenter is comparatively sparsely populated.