Syria conflict costs Lebanon $7.5bn: WB

The conflict in Syria has cost Lebanon $7.5 billion as it struggles to cope with hosting more than a million refugees from the neighbouring country, according to World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim.
"We estimated last summer that the impact of the crisis on Lebanon was $7.5 billion," Kim said late on Sunday in the Saudi city of Jeddah, which he visited in the first stop of a regional tour.
He said the conflict has had a "profound" impact on Lebanon and Jordan, which also hosts around 600,000 Syrian refugees.
The conflict that broke out in March 2011 with demonstrations against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad descended into a civil war that has killed more than 160,000 people, and driven millions from their homes.
Kim said the World Bank is trying "as much as possible" to help the two countries that host the largest Syrian refugee populations, according to AFP.