The World - News from June 20, 1989

The war between Iran and Iraq cost them a total of more than $500 billion--not including losses in the oil sector--and put the entire Persian Gulf region in an economic recession, a West German study said. In adding up some of the costs of the 1980-88 conflict, the Hamburg-based Deutsche Orient-Institut said that the “tanker war” damaged or destroyed 546 ships in the gulf, while in surrounding Arab countries there was an exodus of $100 billion in private-sector capital. The oil-industry losses combined with high defense outlays by gulf states have produced a far-reaching recession throughout the region, the institute said.