Europe's insurance market was stable in 2009, and acted as a "stabilizing force" for the rest of the economy, according to an annual insurance statistics report published by CEA, the association of European trade groups.
Total gross premiums in Europe rose 2.9% to 1.06 trillion euros [at constant exchange rates] in 2009, the CEA found.
Life insurance premiums, which account for 61% of all premiums in Europe, totaled 647 billion euros last year, up 4.7% from 2008 at constant exchange rates. The CEA noted this was a solid recovery from 2008.
The CEA noted a wide range of outcomes among individual countries, with Liechtenstein's premiums up 51% and those of Italy up 49%, while Poland fell 22% and Romania down 48%.
Of the four largest life insurance markets -- the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy -- which together account for 75% of Europe's life premiums, only the United Kingdom saw a drop in 2009 premiums, down 10%.
In the nonlife market, premiums fell 1.9% to 409 billion euros, the first time in a decade that growth was negative, according to the CEA. "The decrease in 2009 appears to a large extent to be recession-related, with consumers prepared to forego insurance or to reduce their cover to keep costs down."
In 2009, and average of 1,791 euros per capita was spent on insurance in the 33 countries represented by CEA members, the group said. Of that. 1,097 euros was spent on life insurance. Of the average 694 euros spent on nonlife insurance, 171 euros was spent on health insurance.
The CEA said European insurers' total investment in the global economy rose more than 8% to 6.8 trillion euros in 2009, following a rebound in capital markets that began in March 2009. Such investments fell 7.5% in 2008, at constant exchange rates.
According to the CEA, the number of insurance companies "has been declining steadily over the last decade, after a wave of mergers and acquisitions at the end of the 1990s following market liberalization and deregulation in the EU." In 2008, the number of companies carrying out insurance activities in the 33 CEA countries totalled slightly more than 5,100, about 100 less than in 2007, or a 2.1% decrease.
"Provisional figures for 2009 indicate a further, as yet unquantified, decrease," the report said.
Employment in the insurance sector rebounded in 2009. "After five successive years of decline, caused mainly by consolidation, the number of people employed in the European insurance industry recovered in 2007 and 2008 by 0.7% and 0.6% respectively, taking the total number of employees to over 1 million," said the CEA. "The 2009 trend points towards a slight decline. The share of full-time workers is continuing its slow decrease of the last 10 years (87% in 2008 against 89% in 1999)."
(By David Pilla, international editor, BestWeek: David.Pilla@ambest.com)
http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=237500
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We’ve seen good numbers for insurance companies in the last few weeks and I’ve predicted that it could help boost the economy in general. Well coming across this report, it looks like I could be right, hopefully at least, anyways the report claims the insurance sector helped stable the whole economy in 2009. While might be true to an extent, the report seems to have more than a bit of back slapping about it, so I’d take it with a pinch of salt.
