Asian countries dominate a league table of economies most atrisk from earthquakes, floods, storms and other natural hazards, according toresearch published on Wednesday.
In an assessment of 197 countries, British risk consultancyMaplecroft said six Asian countries were among the 10 countries whose economieswere most vulnerable to catastrophes.
The list is headed by Bangladesh and the Philippines, whichalong with Myanmar are considered to be at "extreme" risk.
Only one other country, the Caribbean state of DominicanRepublic, falls into this category, and was rated third overall.
The other countries in the top 10 were India, Vietnam,Honduras, Laos, Haiti and Nicaragua.
The "Natural Hazards Risk Atlas" looks at theimpact of natural disasters on a country relative to its economy, taking intoaccount preparedness to deal with such events and social ability to rebound.
If a country's infrastructure is weak and its governance ispoor, the economic consequences are that much greater.
The report highlighted the impact on the Philippine economyfrom storms, landslides, volcanoes and floods, including severe flooding thatstruck the northern island of Luzon last week.
It also noted the consequences of drought in India, whichthis year is likely to shave 0.5 percent off the country's gross domesticproduct (GDP).
The analysis's other benchmark is the absolute exposure tonatural hazards, meaning the total bill from a disaster. This is different fromrelative exposure, which means the economic pain that comes from it.
By the "absolute" yardstick, the countries thatface the biggest tabs when natural catastrophes occur are Japan, the UnitedStates, China, Taiwan and Mexico.
However, they have greater muscle and stronger institutionalmeans to cope, and this limits the hit to the economy.
"As the global influence of emerging economiesincreases, the importance of their inherent natural hazard exposure will havewider and deeper global implications," said Maplecroft analyst HelenHodge.
"The test for emerging and developing economies is tobuild a stronger capacity to meet the challenge of hazard-prone environments.Failure to do so will risk their ambitious economic growth when the inevitablenatural hazards strike."
According to the reinsurance giant Munich Re, 2011 was thecostliest year ever for natural disasters, inflicting economic losses of $380billion. The March 11 2011 earthquake and tsunami accounted for 55 percent ofthe total.
