Hanoi:

Asia’s strongest storm this year, Typhoon Yagi, caused damages estimated at 81.5 trillion dong ($3.31 billion) across northern Vietnam, or twice as much as previous estimates, state media said on Saturday.

The typhoon, which killed 299 with 34 missing, devastated export-oriented industrial hubs, destroying factories and facilities, besides flooding farmland, damaging homes, and tearing up a bridge.

“The total economic damage is initially estimated at over 81.5 trillion dong, with most damage triggered by landslides and flash floods,” state-run Vietnam News Agency quoted Agriculture Minister Le Minh Hoan as saying.

The figure exceeds a preliminary estimate of $1.6 billion made this month by the planning ministry that threatened to chip 0.15 percentage point from a forecast for economic growth of 6.8% to 7% this year.

Hoan urged authorities to help people resume production while ensuring supplies and holding down prices, as farm and agricultural land were among the areas hit hardest.

Live pig prices in Vietnam have risen steadily since Typhoon Yagi and subsequent flooding affected several pig farms, Reuters has reported.

On Thursday, rating agency S&P Global said Vietnamese banks’ profitability would be hit because of typhoon debt relief measures ordered by the central bank.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Yangon:

Floods in Myanmar sparked by Typhoon Yagi have displaced more than 235,000 people and killed at least 33, the junta said on Friday.

“There are 236,649 people from 59,413 households who were displaced because of typhoon floods… There were 33 deaths and one person injured around the country,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said in an audio statement.

He said authorities have “lost communication with some areas” and urged those living near river banks to seek shelter elsewhere and “be vigilant” until Sunday.

Earlier Friday, Myanmar’s fire service gave a higher death count of 36.

Authorities were investigating reports that dozens of migrant workers in gold mining areas in central Mandalay region were missing following landslides, the junta spokesman said.

People in parts of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar have been battling floods and landslides in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, which dumped a colossal deluge of rain when it hit the region last weekend.

More than 2.7 million people were already displaced in Myanmar by conflict triggered by the junta’s 2021 coup, which has plunged the country into turmoil.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)