Wednesday, April 6 2005 13:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Manila: Two million more Asians, including some 6,44,000 persons in India, have joined the ranks of the poor following the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster even though the overall impact on the economies of the affected countries looks small, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said today (Apr 6, 2005).

"Despite the huge scale of loss of human life, homelessness and displaced populations, the macroeconomic impact of the disaster appears limited," the Manila-based ADB said in its annual Asian Development Outlook report.

"Nonetheless, the economic impact will be felt severely at the local and community levels, dragging a significant number of already poor people into deeper poverty."

India's poor received some 6,44,000 new additions after the tsunamis, while damage in Thailand's tourism-dependent south pushed 24,000 people into poverty.

While international aid flows would help rebuild houses and other facilities, "the restoration of eroded and salinised fields may take several years" and "worse, it can take years for communities to replace the skills lost".

It cited a study by the US financial service outfit Citibank that expects Thailand to recover the fastest. "India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka could take longer to recover, and Indonesia even longer."

Damage to the agriculture and fisheries sector in Indonesia's Aceh and North Sumatra provinces had increased the number of poor by more than a million.

Devastation of Sri Lanka's fishing communities and small-scale traders led to job losses, increasing the number of poor by 2,87,000 people while tourism and fisheries infrastructure was particularly affected in the Maldives.