KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — Malaysia is estimated to have suffered total losses of between RM5.3 billion and RM6.5 billion so far due to the recent flood emergency that hit the Klang Valley and multiple states in the country, minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said today.

Mustapa, who is minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy), said this estimate is from studies carried out by the Department of Statistics of Malaysia (DoSM) on the impact of floods on the affected states.

He listed the estimated total losses of up to RM6.5 billion as including damage worth RM1.2 billion to RM1.4 billion to residences, RM500 million to RM600 million worth of damage to business premises, and RM1 billion to RM1.3 billion of damage to vehicles.

Also included are estimated losses of RM2 billion to public assets and infrastructure, RM800 million to RM1 billion worth of damage to the manufacturing industry, and RM40.9 million to RM49.9 million to the agriculture sector.

He said this in a speech delivered in conjunction with DoSM’s launch of its Household Income, Expenditure and Basic Amenities Survey — a survey that will be carried out from January to December 2022.

This survey is in its 20th edition and will involve around 93,000 households or covering 500,000 of the country’s population, with the survey’s goals including the preparation of poverty statistics and helping the government to plan and monitor the effectiveness of the country’s development plans.

As of January 7, the National Disaster Management Agency’s (Nadma) data showed that 52,024 households were affected by the floods, and that 85.7 per cent or 44,573 of these households had received the Bantuan Wang Ihsan financial aid.

As of January 5, police reported 54 deaths due to the floods.