New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission (EQC) has made payments of more than $NZ3 billion ($2.4 billion) for Canterbury earthquake damage.

EQC CEO Ian Simpson says this makes the earthquake series one of the costliest natural disasters in history.

“On a global scale, what we’re doing is right up there,” he said. “Hurricane Katrina in the US in 2005 was the costliest natural disaster in history, resulting in roughly the same number of insurance claims as the number we have received from our customers.

“We are facing an unprecedented job in Canterbury. Nowhere else in the world has there been an insurance event made up of a number of ongoing events.”

The EQC estimates its total liability at $NZ12 billion ($9.46 billion), which will be paid out in the next two to three years.

It has received more than 48,000 new claims since the December 23 2011 earthquake, making it the fourth-biggest Canterbury earthquake claims event after September 2010, February 22 and June 13 2011.