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Extreme rainfall slows the global economy

Excessive rainfall can cause catastrophic socio-economic losses to a community or nation. An analysis of changes in gross regional product identifies ways in which extreme precipitation affects global economic productivity.
  1. Xin-Zhong Liang

    1. Xin-Zhong Liang is in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA.

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In July 2021, record-breaking rainfall brought severe floods to Europe, where 200,000 properties lost electrical power. In the same month, torrential rain with a maximum intensity of 201.9 millimetres in a single hour led to devastating floods (Fig. 1) in Henan province, China, forcing more than one million people to relocate. These flooding events each caused roughly US$12 billion in property damage. Such losses, incurred during or shortly after extreme events, represent a direct negative impact on the economy. But how does excessive precipitation affect macroeconomics indirectly in the longer term? Writing in Nature, Kotz et al.1 report a comprehensive assessment of changes in gross regional product (GRP) relating to excessive precipitation, and conclude that increases in the numbers of wet days and in extreme daily rainfall dramatically reduce worldwide macroeconomic growth rates.

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Nature 601, 193-194 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03783-x

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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