NEW YORK, Sept 4: The financial toll exacted by the September 11 attacks in New York could total up to 95 billion dollars, depending on the number of jobs relocated out of the city, the city’s chief auditor said on Wednesday.

“While this devastating event can never be reduced to numbers, it is clear that New York City and the nation will continue to suffer its economic ramifications for years to come,” Comptroller William Thompson told reporters.

Thompson said the final figure would be somewhere between 83 billion dollars and 95 billion dollars by the end of 2004, with the final figure depends, in part, on how many jobs are shifted outside the city.

The cost of replacing destroyed or damaged buildings, infrastructure and lost tenant assets will alone come to 21.8 billion dollars.

The attacks on the World Trade Centre destroyed 13 million square feet (1.2 million square meters) of prime office space — equal to the entire office inventory in the central business district of Atlanta or Miami.

Thompson’s report said New York City was down a total of 146,000 jobs as a result of the attacks, which had already cost 17 billion dollars in lost wages.

At the same time, the city has not gained a projected 63,000 jobs that would have resulted in its recovery from recession.

The report also pointed out that of the 21.4 billion dollars in federal assistance allocated to the city, only 2.7 billion dollars had been released to date.

The report was not wholly negative with Thompson pointing to a small rise in the employment figures for July and the robustness of the real estate market.

“The facts demonstrate that the city has experienced an unprecedented loss, but already there are signs of a recovery,” he said.

“Time and time again New York City has overcome great difficulties. I know that we will meet this challenge, and emerge stronger than ever.”

The attacks have cost the city nearly three billion dollars in lost taxes and nearly 500 million dollars in unreimbursed expenses, Thompson said, adding that roughly half the six billion dollar budget gap that had to be closed in fiscal 2003 was attributable to September 11.

A key question addressed by the report was the extent to which companies were moving their employees permanently out of the city, with several large corporations already operating some new units in the states of New Jersey and Connecticut.

“Some former World Trade Centre tenants are clearly sending a signal that for the time being their employees do not wish to be in the downtown (Manhattan) area and have transferred them to other locations,” it said.

The extent of the immediate economic impact of the attacks on the city was highlighted by a series of figures related to New York’s average daily “Gross City Product” (GCP) of 1.2 billion dollars.

Lower Manhattan, where the World Trade Centre was located, accounts for 300 million dollars, or one quarter of the total.—AFP