It may cost $180 billion to rebuild Syria, World Bank’s Kim says

It may cost as much as $180 billion to rebuild war-torn Syria, said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Thursday, MarketWatch reports.

At a press conference at the start of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank spring meetings, Kim said, once hostilities end, many Syrian refugees will unlikely to return unless schools and health clinics are rebuilt. Kim said the range of costs could be $150 billion to $180 billion.

Given the plunge in oil prices, Kim said he was concerned about who would pay for this basic infrastructure.

“I am worried that there will not be the kind of grant-based aid that we might have seen at the time of $100-a-barrel oil,” he said.

“The usual strong supporters of the region, the oil-producing countries, are themselves facing fiscal deficits,” Kim added.

Syria’s refugee crisis also has been a topic for the IMF, which warned the refugee crisis and ensuing terrorism fears have hardened the European and U.S. political discussion toward more nationalist, and protectionist, policies.