Economic losses from U.S. January storm around $2 billion: Aon Benfield

LONDON (Reuters) - A winter storm that struck the eastern seaboard of the United States in January caused around $2 billion in economic losses, and hundreds of millions of dollars in insured losses, reinsurance broker Aon Benfield said on Tuesday. The storm brought "prodigious snowfall, high winds, coastal flooding, freezing rain, ice, sleet and severe thunderstorms," to the region, killing 58 people, Aon Benfield said in its monthly global catastrophe report. Insured losses were projected to reach "well into the hundreds of millions", it added. A prolonged period of Arctic cold and snowfall in East Asia, also in January, caused a further nearly $2 billion in economic losses during the month, Aon Benfield said. Windstorm Marita, or Gertrude, which hit Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia last month, caused expected economic and insured losses of more than $100 million, the firm added. (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by Sinead Cruise)