Post-quake rebuilding costs Italy $3.5 billion a year: Minister

Graziano del Rio, Italy's minister of infrastructure and transport, said that the country spends more than €3 billion ($3.5 billion) annually on rebuilding after earthquakes, Business Standard reported, citing media sources. Around 10 million homes in Italy urgently needed to be made earthquake-proof and major tax breaks and grants were available to property owners for the necessary building work, the minister said after a magnitude-4.0 earthquake killed at least two people, injured 39 and left 2,600 homeless on the seismically active resort-island of Ischia off Naples late on Aug. 21.

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