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June 28, 2012 at 09:46 AM
Global life insurance premiums fell in 2011, while prices began to harden in some markets and premiums grew for non-life insurance products, according to a new report.
Swiss Re, Armonk, N.Y., published this finding a new sigma study, “World Insurance in 2011: Non-Life Ready for Take-Off.” The study contains Swiss Re Economic Research & Consulting estimates and provisional data released by supervisory authorities and insurance associations.
Direct life insurance premiums declined 0.8% in real terms, the report says. However, direct premiums reached a record high of USD $5 billion in nominal terms, increasing 6% over 2010, as the U.S. dollar depreciated against the major currencies.
Global life insurance premiums shrank 2.7% and advanced markets—among them life-insurance funded wealth transfer, business, and charitable planning solutions—dipped 2.3%. The sharpest decline in the advanced markets spaced was observed in Western Europe, which plummeted 9.8%.
Accounting for much of the decline in Europe, the study says, were contractions of premiums in the U.K., as well as of in-force premiums in Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
Meanwhile, premiums for the U.S. market grew moderately at 2.9%. Japan and the newly industrialized Asian countries ticked up 4.4%, well above their ten-year average.
