OSLO, (Reuters) – Haiti and Mozambique are the  nations most at risk economically from natural disasters,  according to a ranking yesterday that says some rich countries  such as Italy and the United States also face high risks.

British-based business consultancy Maplecroft said the index  aimed to show the economic impact from 1980 to 2010 of disasters  such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, landslides, epidemics,  tsunamis and extreme heat and cold.

Haiti, hit by a Jan. 12 earthquake that killed more than  300,000 people, topped the index of about 200 nations. Even  without the quake, the Caribbean nation would have ranked near  the top because of exposure to hurricanes, it said.

Mozambique, which has suffered severe flooding such as in  2000 when at least 800 people were killed and economic losses  totalled more than $400 million, was second ahead of Honduras,  Vanuatu, Zimbabwe, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Some industrialised nations were also among those facing  high risk — led by Italy in 19th place largely because of  earthquakes and a 2003 heatwave, Maplecroft said.

The United States was in 30th place after big economic  losses from hurricanes such as Katrina in 2005. China, where the  Sichuan earthquake in 2008 killed almost 90,000 people, was in  26th.

“Katrina cost the U.S. $45 billion, whilst the Chinese  government estimated the cost of the Sichuan earthquake in 2008  at $123 billion,” Maplecroft environmental analyst Anna Moss  said in a statement. As a percentage of gross domestic product,  developing countries are most exposed.