World Bank: More than $400 billion will be needed to restore Ukraine

The World Bank has increased its estimate of how much Ukraine needs for post-war recovery and reconstruction to at least $411 billion, based on the damage caused during the first year of the Russian invasion.

This is reported by Bloomberg.

The new figure was obtained based on a joint assessment of the World Bank, the Government of Ukraine, the European Commission and the United Nations. Thus, the World Bank quantified the direct physical damage to infrastructure and homes, as well as the impact on peopleʼs lives and livelihoods.

According to the operational assessment of needs, in 2023, Ukraine will need $14 billion for critical and priority investments in reconstruction and recovery. Approximately 22% of needs are for transport, 17% for housing, 11% for energy, and 7% for agriculture.

The damage estimate is 2.6 times higher than the projected GDP of Ukraine for 2022. The World Bank notes that the Russian invasion has driven 7.1 million people into poverty and reversed 15 years of development progress.

In September 2022, the World Bank made an initial projection of $349 billion, based on the first three months of the war.

• According to the Kyiv School of Economics, the total amount of damage caused to Ukraineʼs infrastructure due to a full-scale invasion has already reached $143.8 billion.