Beijing, January 18 (QNA) - Natural disasters incurred 327.1 billion yuan (about $47.5 billion) in direct economic losses across China last year. The Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management said in a statement on Saturday that the natural disasters-incurred losses in gross domestic product, however, went down 24% in 2019, when compared to the average for the past five years. A total of 909 people were killed or missing in natural disasters last year, with about 130 million more people adversely impacted, including evacuation of 5.29 million people, the ministry pointed out.

  The country was mainly hit by floods, typhoons, drought, earthquakes and geological disasters in 2019, while forest and grassland fires, hailstorms, low temperatures and snow disasters also caused damages to varying extents. The overall impact of natural disasters last year was smaller than the average for the past five years, with the decreases in terms of death toll and missing population, the number of collapsed houses, as well as the ratio of direct economic losses caused by natural disasters in GDP. (QNA)