Worldwide non-life insurance premiums up 2.3% worldwide, 3.2% in Canada: Swiss Re

Non-life insurance premiums rose 3.2% in Canada and 2.3% worldwide in 2013, Swiss Re Ltd. announced in a recent sigma study titled, ‘World insurance in 2013: steering towards recovery‘, though growth was slower in advanced markets due in part to a “weak economic environment” in Western Europe.

In a press release Wednesday, Zurich-based Swiss Re included a table listing premiums in life and non-life in several markets.

Worldwide, total premiums were $4.641 trillion, up 1.4% from 2012. All figures are in United States currency and all growth figures are adjusted for inflation. Total non-life premiums were $2.033 trillion in 2013, up 2.3% from 2012. Non-life premiums in 2012 had been 2.7% than in 2011, Swiss Re noted.

The study broke down premiums by advanced and emerging markets. In the advanced markets, total premiums in 2013 were $3.853 trillion (up 0.3% from 2012) while total non-life premiums were $1.653 trillion, up 1.1% year over year. In 2012, non-life premiums in advanced markets had grown 1.5% in real terms. Swiss Re attributed the slowdown in growth mainly to “a still-depressed market in Western Europe, with premiums down 0.3% due to the weak economic environment.” In Italy, the seventh largest market, non-life premiums dropped 5% in 2013.

In Canada, non-life premiums in 2013 were $75 billion, up 3.2% over 2012.

The top three markets were the United States, Japan and Britain, with total premiums of $1.259 trillion, $532 billion and $330 billion respectively in 2013. Seven of the eight largest markets were in the advanced markets, while China (with had total premiums in 2013 of $278 billion), which is considered an emerging market, ranked fourth. Germany ranked sixth by total premiums of $247 billion but had $133 billion in non-life, ahead of China, Japan, Britain and France. The United States had non-life premiums of $726 billion in 2013, up 1.7% from 2012.

In the emerging markets, total premiums were $788 billion in 2013, up 7.4% from 2012, while total non-life premiums were $380 billion, up 8.3% from 2012. In China, non-life premiums grew 15.5% year over year.

“The expansion in emerging Asia was supported by sustained strong growth in Southeast Asia and China,” Swiss Re stated.

“As people get wealthier and acquire more physical assets to protect, for example vehicles, they spend more on non-life insurance products,” stated Mahesh Puttaiah, one of the authors of the study, in a release.