ONE of the few good things about the Great Recession of 2008-09 was a merciful absence of complaints from America’s Congress about China’s currency. The yuan’s gradual appreciation stopped in July 2008, and China has since kept its currency tightly pegged to the dollar. But even as America suffered its worst downturn in the post-war period, its legislators steered clear of ranting against China.

That restraint was driven partly by fear. At the depths of the crisis even the most myopic Congressmen worried about a descent into 1930s-style protectionism. And it was driven partly by the facts. As investors’ flight to safety strengthened the dollar in late 2008, the yuan rose along with it. With America’s imports slumping it was hard to blame Chinese workers for American joblessness. And thanks to its huge domestic stimulus China added to global demand last year, as its current-account surplus shrank sharply.

Now things have, unfortunately, gone into reverse. As policymakers in both countries shift from cushioning recession to managing recovery, the rigidity of the yuan is, once again, becoming a source of tension—one that a still-fragile global recovery can ill afford.

America sounds increasingly determined to push its exports, and its attitude to China has hardened. Mr Obama has set a goal of doubling exports in five years (see article) and has promised to “get much tougher” over what it regards as unfair competition from China. Speculation is rising in Washington, DC, that the Treasury will brand China a currency “manipulator” in its next exchange-rate report. With America’s unemployment at 9.7% and the mid-term elections approaching, the appeal of China-bashing is rising in Congress, too. Several senators recently revived a mothballed demand that the Commerce Department should investigate China’s currency regime as an unfair trade subsidy.

Beijing, in turn, shows little sign of budging on the yuan, even though the latest figures show surprisingly strong export growth and higher-than-expected inflation. Zhou Xiaochuan, the head of China’s central bank, caused a brief flurry in currency markets when he argued on March 6th that keeping the yuan stable against the dollar was “part of our package of policies for dealing with the global financial crisis” from which China would exit “sooner or later”. But he made it quite clear that China would be cautious and gave no hint that sudden exit was imminent. In recent days various other Chinese officials have put even more emphasis on the stability of the currency, bristled at outside pressure to hurry up and denounced American “politicisation” of the exchange-rate issue.

A speedy end to the dollar peg makes economic sense for China as well as for the world. A stronger, more flexible currency would make it easier for China to control inflation and asset bubbles. A dearer yuan would also help rebalance China’s economy towards domestic spending by boosting Chinese consumers’ purchasing power, discouraging excessive investment in manufacturing and squeezing corporate profits. That would put the global recovery on a steadier footing, especially if a stronger yuan were mirrored by appreciation of the currencies of other Asian emerging economies. And China would gain politically by helping to diffuse protectionist pressure from abroad.

But it would not be a magic bullet, either within China or outside. Rebalancing China’s economy will require big structural reforms, from tax to corporate governance, as well as a stronger currency. A stronger yuan would not suddenly bring back millions of jobs to America. Since America no longer makes most of the products it imports from China, a stronger yuan would initially act more like a tax on consumers.
Soft-soaping, not sabre-rattling

Will the administration’s new tough talk move things in the right direction? Those who argue in favour of sabre-rattling do so on two grounds: first, that it is likely to shift China’s position, and second, that a stronger stance against China’s currency from the White House will diffuse protectionist sentiment in Congress. Both are dubious. China’s reactions so far suggest that American complaints make an imminent currency shift less, not more, likely. And a row could spur rather than diffuse anti-China action in Congress.

Rather than raising a bilateral ruckus, America would be far better off convincing other big economies in the G20 to press together for a yuan appreciation as part of the world’s exit strategy from the crisis. Cool and calm multilateral leadership will achieve more, with fewer risks, than a Sino-American currency spat.

HE MAY have steeled himself for a poor result in the first round of French regional elections, held on Sunday March 14th. But the outcome for France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, must nonetheless have felt crushing. Polls had suggested that his ruling UMP party would be neck-and-neck at this point with the opposition Socialists. Instead, the Socialists bagged fully 30%, with the UMP trailing at 26%. At the second round vote next Sunday, Mr Sarkozy can now hope at best simply to hold on to Alsace and Corsica, the only two regions out of 22 in mainland France which the UMP governs. At worst, he might even lose both.

In a poll marked by the lowest turnout since France’s regions were created in 1986, Mr Sarkozy’s party did manage to come out top in several places, such as Champagne-Ardennes, Ile-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) and Rhone-Alpes. But the two-round voting system allows any party with at least 10% of the poll to go forward to a run-off. This is likely to help the Socialists more than it will the UMP. Their friends, Europe Ecologie, the rising stars of the French left, secured a handy 13%.

Frenzied talks are already underway to agree a deal that would allow the two parties to merge for the second round. Along with other left-wing votes from the scattered smaller parties that failed to qualify for the next round, the Socialists are well placed to sweep most of the map.

Victory is particularly likely in regions where the far-right National Front scraped over the 10% threshold needed to stand in the second round. In what must surely be one of the 81-year-old’s final elections, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the party’s fiery boss, grabbed a massive 20% of the vote in the PACA region. In the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, his equally feisty daughter, Marine Le Pen, did nearly as well, with 19.8%.

The UMP certainly has no intention of doing any deals with the far-right, so the front’s presence on the ballot sheet next weekend will rob it of potential extra voters on the right. Mr Sarkozy may be able to scoop up some of the votes that went to François Bayrou’s MoDem, which managed a miserable 4% nationally. But his strategy of unifying the political right ahead of the first round in a single umbrella party, the UMP, leaves the French president with fewer second-round back-up votes.

Mr Sarkozy has already tried to minimise the result, arguing that it concerns regional issues and will have no national consequences. He has suggested that defeat would not prompt a reshuffle, nor a change of his prime minister, François Fillon. Yet many of his own ministers, such as Xavier Darcos (labour), Valérie Pécresse (higher education), and Bruno Le Maire (farms), are standing for the presidency of various regions. It requires heroic analytical gymnastics not to see the vote in some ways as a national mid-term expression of discontent: at rising joblessness, at the recession and at Mr Sarkozy’s leadership.

If the UMP is in danger of not reading enough into the regional elections, the Socialist Party may be at risk of reading too much. Martine Aubry, the party’s boss, says that her ambition is for the party to win a “grand slam” of all 22 regions. Even if she does not manage this, she will nevertheless be buoyed by a sweeping victory, which will lend her some credibility in the build-up to the 2012 presidential election.

Yet the Socialists have plenty of problems of their own, not least the fact that Georges Frêche, a candidate whom they expelled for an anti-Semitic slur, came top in his region in the first round—while the official Socialist contender did not even get the 10% needed to stay in the race. With vague talk about wanting a “fairer and stronger” France, Ms Aubry’s pitch to the electorate has not been clear. Voters may have been expressing their disillusion with Mr Sarkozy as much as any faith that the Socialists could do better.

“If you are talking about people in the human rights community from outside… I have an issue with this,” Kagame said, 16 years after he was hailed as a hero for ending a genocide that killed at least 800,000 people.

“You tend to make a judgment of a country, 11 million people, on what a couple of people have said and (they) don’t take into account what Rwandans say.”

Kagame added, “Nobody has asked the Rwandans … it’s as if they don’t matter in the eyes of the human rights people. It’s our own decisions in the end.”

He said everyone in Rwanda has to play by the rules and be accountable. “There has to be leadership to make things move in the right direction,” Kagame stated.

Kagame’s comments came a month after the New York-based group, Human Rights Watch, said opposition activists are facing increasing threats, attacks, and harassment ahead of Rwanda’s presidential election in August.

Human Rights Watch said opposition party members have suffered serious intimidation by individuals and institutions close to the government and Kagame’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).

The RPF took power in 1994 after its army swept into the capital of Kigali and overthrew the Hutu-dominated government responsible for the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Rwandans, most of them members of the minority Tutsi community.

In the aftermath of the 100-day genocide, the fastest in modern history, Kagame transformed his country, turning it into one of the fastest growing nations in Africa and — in the view of some — a model of economic and social development.

Kagame said Rwanda has made significant progress in erasing some of the scars left behind after the tragedy.

“That’s why the country is stable. That’s why the country is moving on. That’s why the country is developing.”

Kagame insisted he has nothing to do with the continuing civil war in mineral-rich Congo, even though he acknowledged that Rwandan troops intervened there a decade ago in an attempt to stop rebel groups from returning to Rwanda.

The war became the largest and most destructive conflict in African history, costing more than 5 million lives, as various groups and foreign armies fought for control of Congo’s land and mineral resources.

“I cannot be blamed for the problems of Congo or any other country,” Kagame said. “There are the Congolese who have their own country, who are supposed to manage it, who are supposed to govern it. It has nothing to do with me.”

If you watch many Chinese gamblers play baccarat in Macau, there is a good chance you will see the players squeeze the cards tightly between their fingers, slowly peek at the cards by lifting the vertical end just enough to see the suit and number, then turn the card horizontally to peek at the number again.

Each time, they crease the cards rendering the cards unusable for another round (Macau casinos seem to tolerate this). The slow dance of peeking and creasing is to increase the suspense as the player hopes for a good pair of numbers that close in on the magic number: 9.

Some Chinese players even blow on the cards, hoping to “blow away” bad numbers. At one table with a sizeable group, a woman exclaimed “hoi, hoi,” (“turn it over, turn it over”) as she watched a player perform his ritual.

“Sometimes, you almost believe that they can actually change the outcome of a card by the way they squeeze the card. So there’s a lot of superstition,” said Scott Milburn, vice president of table games at City of Dreams.

Ray Rody, a gaming professor at Macau Millennium College who studies gambling’s cultural history, agreed that the typical Chinese gambler is superstitious. That nature is on full display at the baccarat table. In baccarat, one player is dealt a pair of cards and the other gamblers at the table can choose to bet with or against that player.

“The Chinese like to bet with a player when they win and against a player when they are losing because they believe in the luck of other players as well as their own,” said Rody.

“They look for trends of three or more straight wins for the banker or player and then bet for a 4th or 5th straight win. The gamblers who believe in this type of luck walk around the casino searching for tables showing a trend.”

In fact, City of Dreams has installed computer monitors at the baccarat tables to help gamblers track trends. The monitors show a chart of who won the last 20 or 30 rounds at that table. If a trend starts appearing, that table will most likely draw a big crowd.

Baccarat brings in the lion’s share of Macau’s casino revenues. According to the latest government statistics available from 2008, baccarat brought in 86 percent of Macau’s total gaming revenues, ringing up $11.8 billion.

The other reason players like baccarat is because it’s considered the table game with the best odds against the house.

Rody said a gambler who places a “banker bet” in baccarat has the best odds with a statistical disadvantage of 1.06 percent. A “player bet” has a little less favorable odds with a 1.24 percent disadvantage against the house.

“(Baccarat) is the best option for the player for their money to last the longest because most other table games run about a 3 percent disadvantage for the player … or a 3 percent advantage for the house,” Rody said.

Scott Milburn said baccarat is by far the casino’s crown jewel.

“We have 70 percent of our floor space of mass market dedicated to baccarat tables,” he said, noting he has seen individual VIP baccarat players win or lose between $7 million to $10 million in a day.

Since Japanese knotweed was introduced to the UK it has rapidly spread, and the plant currently costs over £150m a year to control and clear.

But scientists say a natural predator in the weed’s native home of Japan could also help to control it here.

The insect will initially be released in a handful of sites this spring.

This is the first time that biocontrol – the use of a “natural predator” to control a pest – has been used in the EU to fight a weed.

Wildlife Minister Huw Irranca-Davies said: “These tiny insects, which naturally prey on Japanese Knotweed, will help free local authorities and industry from the huge cost of treating and killing this devastating plant.”

Alien invaders

Japanese knotweed was introduced to the UK by the Victorians as an ornamental plant, but it soon escaped from gardens and began its rampant spread throughout the UK.

It grows incredibly quickly – more than one metre a month – and rapidly swamps any other vegetation in its path.

It is so hardy that it can burst through tarmac and concrete, causing costly damage to pavements, roads and buildings.

But removal is difficult and expensive; new estimates suggest it costs the UK economy £150m a year.

However, in Japan, the plant is common but does not rage out of control like it does in the UK, thanks to the natural predators that keep it in check.

Scientists at Cabi – a not-for-profit agricultural research organisation – used this as their starting point to track down a potential knotweed solution.

They looked at the superweed’s natural predators – nearly 200 species of plant-eating insects and about 40 species of fungi – with the aim of finding one with an appetite for Japanese knotweed and little else.

After testing their candidates on 90 different UK plant species, including plants closely related to Japanese knotweed such as bindweeds and important crops and ornamental species, they discovered a psyllid called Aphalara itadori was the best control agent.

The little insect feeds on the sap of the superweed, stunting its growth.

Dr Dick Shaw, the lead researcher on the project from Cabi, told BBC News: “Safety is our top priority. We are lucky that we do have an extremely specific agent – it just eats invasive knotweeds.”

Following peer review by the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment and a public consultation, the UK government has now given the go-ahead for release of Aphalara itadori, under licence, in England.

The Welsh Assembly is expected to announce its decision on the psyllid soon.

The insects will initially be released on a handful of sites.

These will be isolated and, in addition to as having the superweed present, will also have UK species that are closely related to Japanese knotweed planted there to check that the psyllid only targets the invasive species.

Dr Shaw said: “In the early stages, a contingency plan is in place so that should, in the unlikely event, any unintended consequences be detected, we will be able to do something about it.

“Insecticide and herbicide treatment will be on standby for rapid response.”

If this phase is successful, the insect will be released at further sites, where it will undergo an intensive monitoring programme over the next five years.

Dr Shaw said: “On the localised sites, I would expect to see damaged knotweed this season.

“However, biocontrol is a long-term strategy – it could take five to 10 years to have a real impact.”

The government believes that if the plan is successful it will reduce the costs to the building and engineering industries of clearing the plant.

However, some critics say that it is impossible to be certain that the Japanese insect will only target the superweed and could attack other species once in the wild.

MetLife is paying $6.8bn in cash and $8.7bn in shares for American Life Insurance Company (Alico), which operates in more than 50 countries.

The announcement comes a week after AIG agreed to sell its Asian business AIA to UK group Prudential for $35.5bn.

AIG is seeking to repay $182.3bn of loans from the US government.

“This came quicker than expected – normally you’d expect a company to take a breather after a deal like the AIA sale,” said Antony Gifford, portfolio manager for North American equities at Henderson Global Investors.

“But MetLife already announced it was in negotiations on 2 February, while the AIA deal was still going on. Perhaps the timetable was driven by the US government.”

Global expansion

The speed of the deal may have come at the cost of a cheaper sale price: “This has turned out to be a more favourable deal to Metlife than we had expected,” commented Mr Gifford.

“We estimate that it will increase Metlife’s earning per share in 2011 by $0.50, or about 10%,” he added. “It will also give them access to businesses with a higher growth rate.”

MetLife is currently the largest life insurer in the US. The purchase of Alico will boost its presence in Japan, the Middle East, Latin America, and central and eastern Europe.

“From a strategic perspective, this will help Metlife become more international,” said Mr Gifford. “Metlife is quite a domestic-focused company compared to the other US life insurers.”

More sales?

The sales of AIA, and now of Alico, have allowed AIG to make the first significant repayments of the emergency funding it received from the US government during the financial crisis.

AIG was given an initial $85bn in September 2008 to prevent its collapse at the height of the turmoil in the global credit markets, subsequently rising to $182.3bn. As part of its rescue, AIG became majority-owned by the US government.

AIG expects to raise $31.8bn in cash from the sales of Alico and AIA, which it can use to repay the government, including a $9bn investment in the company made by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

It will also receive shares and other securities as payment from Metlife and Prudential, which are currently valued at $19.2bn, and can be sold by AIG over time to raise further cash.

Mr Gifford added that one more sale by AIG may be in the pipeline, this time of its remaining Japanese assets to Prudential Financial Inc of the USA, which is a separate company from the UK’s Prudential group.

• AFTER Iran announced that its long-delayed Bushehr civilian nuclear plant will be operational within a few months, American diplomats will renew efforts to obtain further sanctions against the Islamic republic over its suspected efforts to build a nuclear bomb. Hillary Clinton, the American secretary of state, has been trying to persuade members of the UN Security Council, including Russia, which has been helping to build the Bushehr plant since 1995, to accept to a new round of sanctions against Iran. The country’s government refused to agree to a compromise plan for its uranium to be enriched in Russia.

• AMERICA’S vice-president, Joe Biden, tries again to untangle the knot that is Middle Eastern politics. He travels to the region on Monday March 8th and will meet the leaders of Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Jordan in an attempt to encourage the resumption of peace talks. George Mitchell, Barack Obama’s envoy, is adding his weight to efforts reopen negotiations. A recent row over historical holy sites has not helped to warm relations, as Israeli archaeologists in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as their future capital, are intent on uncovering evidence of Jewish ties that could be used to undermine the Arab presence there.

• FRANCE’S legal system may grind to a halt on Tuesday March 9th as magistrates, prison officers and lawyers hold a strike to protest about reforms to the country’s legal system. The most controversial measure is a proposal to scrap France’s examining magistrates, politically independent and impartial investigators who are responsible for a small proportion of cases that go to trial. These magistrates have handled sensitive cases including investigations of two former presidents, François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, as well as corruption at state-controlled companies. The government wants to hand their powers to state prosecutors, answerable to the Ministry of Justice and, ultimately, the government.

• THE inauguration of Chile’s new president, Sebastian Piñera, on Thursday March 11th promises to be a sombre affair. The earthquake that struck the central-southern region of the country has left at least 800 people dead and 2m homeless. Mr Piñera, a conservative, made election promises to cut back the state and allow private enterprise to flourish. Such efforts may have to go on hold as he concentrates on basic programmes to rebuild infrastructure, telecoms, schools and hospitals.

The quake struck at about 8:20 a.m. (7:20 p.m. Wednesday ET) in a mountainous region about 25 miles northwest of Taitung, on the southeast coast, and 40 miles east of Tainan and Kaohsiung on the southwest coast.

The region includes Taiwan’s Maolin National Scenic Area.

The quake was followed by several aftershocks, the largest reaching a 4.8 magnitude. The initial 6.4 quake rumbled to the surface from 14 miles deep.

The Taiwan Ministry of Interior and the National Fire Agency said electricity was cut off near the epicenter but had no further information.

Residents in southern Taiwan reported cracks in some buildings and major bridges. Train service was also disrupted in some areas, Taiwanese media reported.

Residents in the capital Taipei, 155 miles to the north, also felt the shaking.

Earthquakes are not uncommon in the 13,892-square-mile island — about the size of the U.S. states of Maryland and Delaware combined — which sits across the juncture of the Eurasian and Philippine tectonic plates.

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the same general region in December. The island took a double hit on December 26, 2006, when earthquakes of 7.1 and 6.9 magnitude hit eight minutes apart.

The largest recorded quake to strike Taiwan was an 8.0 magnitude quake in 1920, but the worst earthquake disaster stemmed from a 7.1 magnitude quake in 1935 that killed more than 3,200 people — followed by a 6.5 magnitude quake that killed more than 2,700 people three months later.

More recently, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,400 people in 1999.

The euro rose 0.6% to $1.3698, but was slightly lower against the pound at 90.70 pence.

On Tuesday, the currency fell to its lowest level against the dollar for 10 months amid continuing concerns over Greece’s debt crisis.

Persistent worries over Greece’s 300bn euro ($419bn; £259bn) debt have weighed on the European single currency.

The pound rose against the dollar, trading at $1.512.

Protests

The Greek government approved an austerity package of tax rises and spending cuts worth 4.8bn euros, hoping to convince financial markets that it can pay off its debts and persuade European leaders it is doing enough.

Greece has pledged to reduce its deficit from 12.7% – more than four times eurozone rules – to 8.7% during 2010.

The measures include raising VAT to 21% from the current rate of 19%, and cutting civil servant bonus payments during holidays – which has annoyed union leaders.

But the austerity measures already proposed – such as freezing public sector pay, raising taxes and changing the pension system – have provoked huge street protests.

“The fiscal measures announced by Greece today should allow the government to ease the short-term pressure on its finances with a bond issue and may lead to firmer support from other countries,” said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics.

Greece needs to sell bonds in the coming weeks. It has to raise 20bn euros in order to pay off maturing debt in April and May.

Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou is due to visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Friday, in what could be a key meeting to decide what, if any, European assistance Greece receives.

He will visit France to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy soon afterwards.

European investigation

The European Commission announced that it intends to question banks and regulators over the role played by credit-default swaps in the Greek debt crisis, and how these financial instruments might be regulated in future.

Credit-default swaps are similar to insurance contracts, and allow banks and other institutions to buy financial protection against the risk that a borrower is unable to repay its debts.

However, the swaps have also been used by hedge funds to speculate against Greek debt, and make money if Greece’s standing in the markets deteriorates.

Despite the Commission’s concerns, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, the UK’s financial watchdog, played down the importance of speculators.

Adair Turner said it is more important to keep the confidence of long-term buyers of Greek government bonds.

“It is important that even if we look at this issue we don’t overstate it,” added Mr Turner, who said that swaps speculators only comprised around 3% to 4% of outstanding Greek debt.

“A fundamental issue that can drive volatility on spreads on Greek bonds is a whole load of long investors not being willing to buy.”

Michelle Bachelet says 14,000 troops are now in the region, after dozens of people were arrested on Monday.

A BBC reporter in Concepcion says police are now posted on street corners in the city centre, but says that aid convoys are yet to reach the needy.

The death toll from the 8.8-magnitude quake now stands at 795, officials say.

Emergency workers also say 19 people are still unaccounted for.

‘Necessary measure’

A special air route is being set up to deliver aid from the capital, Santiago, to Concepcion, 430km (270 miles) away.

But security in the city remains a key concern after shops and homes were looted on Monday and police made large numbers of arrests.

The deteriorating security situation in Concepcion comes despite the influx of thousands of troops to reinforce local police.

“We can say that, according what we’ve been told from the area, the situation in Concepcion is under control today,” President Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday.

But, she added, authorities would take any “necessary measure” to stop renewed looting.

“Our principle objective is to go and help people tackle the emergency in the disaster zone.

“I want them [looters] to understand this and that they’ll receive rigorous legal action. We will not tolerate such actions.”

Many of the city’s 500,000 inhabitants are short of food and have seen their water and electricity supplies cut off.

Aid agencies have yet to reach Concepcion, reports the BBC’s Andy Gallacher, who has reached the city, and many people are still awaiting water, food and mattresses.

However, at least two police officers appear to be posted on every corner in the city centre, our correspondent says.

Some residents quoted by Reuters news agency said they were organising groups to defend their property.

Coastal destruction

Reports are also beginning to emerge of the scale of the devastation in other areas.

Up to 90% of the mud-and-wood buildings in the historic centre of Curico had been destroyed or damaged, and a hospital badly damaged, BBC reporters said.

Some coastal towns and villages were also hit by giant waves after the earthquake, with some reported to have been completely destroyed.

Reports from the town of Pelluhue suggested that a series of tsunamis swept through what was a tranquil seaside resort, destroying houses and claiming many lives.

The government admits that its attempts to provide aid swiftly have been hampered by damaged roads and power cuts.

The air supply route between Santiago and Concepcion will help the authorities send more than 300 tonnes of aid, including 120 tonnes of food, to the worst-affected area of the country.

Communication problems

International aid has begun arriving. Neighbouring Argentina is flying a field hospital over the Andes to Chile and has pledged half a million litres of much-needed drinking water.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew to Santiago and offered his nation’s support, as did US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Mrs Clinton took a consignment of satellite phones with her to Santiago after the Chilean government requested communications equipment alongside field hospitals and water purification units.

“We stand ready to help in any way that the government of Chile asks us to,” said Mrs Clinton, adding: “The United States will be there to help when others leave.

After touring the disaster zone, Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera – who takes office on 11 March – said the situation was worse than he had expected.

“When we have a catastrophe of this magnitude, when there is no electricity and no water, the population… starts losing the sense of public order,” he said.

About two million Chileans are believed to have been affected by Saturday’s earthquake, the seventh most powerful on record and the worst disaster to befall Chile in 50 years.

The epicentre of the quake was 115km (70 miles) north-east of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital Santiago.

About 1.5 million homes in Chile have been damaged. Most of the collapsed buildings were of older design – including many historic structures.

One US risk assessor, Eqecat, has put the cost of repairing the damage at between $15bn and $30bn (£9.8bn – £19.6bn) or 10-20% of the country’s gross domestic product.