Despite the region’s low insurance penetration, Asia-Pacific is poised to become a dominant player of the world insurance growth by 2020, with insurance premium income forecast to double during that year.
This was the content of the report released by the Economic Research Department of Munich Re, a global reinsurance company.
The report also stated that nearly 50 percent of the estimated additional primary insurance premiums globally will continue to be generated in the Asia-Pacific region until 2020.
Munich Re added that five of the expected global top-ten primary-insurance growth markets will be in the Asia-Pacific region, both in property/casualty (P/C) and in life.
Munich Re expects China to be the country with the highest increase of primary insurance premiums worldwide until 2020 (additional €425bn), followed by the United States (additional €350bn) and Japan (additional €157bn).
In emerging Asia, P/C primary insurance premiums currently grow on average by 11 percent annually.
This is twice as high as the second-placed region, Eastern Europe.
“China, India and Indonesia will be the top-three growth countries in P/C, with average growth of above 12% over the forecast period (2012-2020) in China and India, and almost 10% in Indonesia,” Michael Menhart, Chief Economist at Munich Re, says
This means Indonesia’s P/C primary insurance volume will more than double in size from almost €3bn in 2012 to €7.3bn in 2020. Average growth rates of other emerging countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand range between 6% and 8%. This is driven by increasing risk awareness and a growing middle class.
Rising consumer savings are fuelling demand for life and health insurance, changing regulations and greater consumer protection will increase demand for motor and liability insurance, while large infrastructure investments will boost the demand for industrial insurance.
Despite these substantial premium growth expectations, emerging Asia will continue to be severely underinsured, especially against natural catastrophes. – BusinessNewsAsia.com