The insurance market is running at high speeds

By Leonidas Stergiou

The dynamics of the life sector that started from the pandemic year continues, with the protagonist being that of life insurance policies linked to investments.

The increase in savings, combined with low interest rates led to the eleven months of January-November 2021 to about 230 million euros in this sector, recording an increase in productive premiums by 62.9% on an annual basis. In contrast, traditional life insurance plans decreased by 3.1%.

This is 77% of the funds that entered the domestic insurance market, based on the production of premiums last year, after the total production increased by 300 million euros and amounted to 3.9 billion euros. According to the data of the Association of Insurance Companies, the production of insurance premiums in the eleven months showed an annual increase of 8.3%, with the industry estimates talking about an annual increase at the level of 8.5%.

Increases in car insurance premiums from 2023

In the non-profit sector, the production of insurance premiums on vehicles is shrinking by 1.7%, which leads market executives to estimate that the expected increase in insurance premiums may be slower and appear from 2023 onwards.

It is recalled that the pandemic and restrictive measures reduced road traffic and, consequently, accidents, turning a traditionally loss-making industry into a profitable one by 2020. This was followed by price competition, which was initially started by its smaller companies. industry and was soon generalized.

The return of traffic on the roads and the increase in accidents led insurance companies in the middle of last year to forecast increases. However, the limited demand for new contracts, as many closed with a 2-year duration at lower prices from 2020 and 2021, changes the data. The insurance market does not expect an increase in premiums before the end of the year.

Rise of economic activity

Also, the loss sector is the one that reflects economic activity. The airline hit by the pandemic is the main reason why the aircraft insurance industry shows an annual decline of 99.6%. In contrast, the ship insurance sector shows an increase in production by 13.4%, the guarantee sector by 36.5%, the goods damage by 27%, the transported goods by 12% and the monetary losses by 21.4%.

The disease sector continues to grow in double digits (12.2%), a sector which has also risen since the pandemic.