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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will need a smaller budget next year to meet the cost of damage from the 2023 earthquake and the needs of affected people as the majority of planned funds have already been allocated, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said.
Speaking to reporters in the parliament on Tuesday, Yilmaz said around $70 billion had been spent from the government budget for the relief and rebuilding of the region since the earthquake, which killed more than 50,000 people and damaged 300,000 buildings.
"We have spent some 2.6 trillion lira (for the earthquake) from the budget in the past two years. This is a huge figure, corresponding to some $70 billion. As of next year the need for this spending will be less," he said.
According to the 2025 budget submitted to the parliament, Turkey has allocated 584 billion lira ($17.05 billion) for earthquake-related spending, or some 0.9% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
For 2023 and 2024, the budget spared for the earthquake represented 3.6% and 2.4% of GDP respectively.
The government and economists previously estimated the total cost of earthquake relief and rebuilding of the impacted southern provinces to be more than $100 billion.
($1 = 34.2449 liras)
(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
