BEIJING : The major earthquake in southwestern China is expected to cost the industrial sector in Sichuan province nearly 10 billion dollars in losses, a government official said Monday.

A total of 14,207 companies in Sichuan, the worst-hit province, were affected by the disaster, with 1,387 of their employees killed, said Xi Guohua, vice minister of industry and information technology.

A preliminary investigation has shown that the companies suffered a loss of 67 billion yuan (9.6 billion dollars), he told a news conference.

A state-run business newspaper said Monday that the quake was forecast to trim 0.2 percent off the fast-growing economy's growth this year.

But analysts have noted that the financial impact would have been much more severe had the disaster struck China's manufacturing hubs on the east coast. - AFP/ms

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