Inflation continues to have an effect on property exposures with sums insured for European windstorm increasing by 10.1% year-on-year at constant euro exchange rates, at similar levels to 2023, according to PERILS AG, the independent Zurich-based company that provides industry-wide catastrophe insurance data.
Across all markets covered by PERILS (which exclude the US), exposure growth is 11.7% year-on-year in US dollar terms, said the PERILS Industry Exposure Database (IED) 2024.
In total, the new PERILS IED 2024 includes detailed sums insured exposed to natural perils of US$111 trillion of property assets.
The PERILS IED for wind exposures in Japan remains remarkably stable in Japanese yen with year-on-year growth in the low single digits, said PERILS IED, which reflected a more moderate inflationary environment in Japan in 2023. However, in US dollars, the sums insured in Japan represent a decline of 5.1% year-on-year due to an appreciating dollar.
“In the IED 2024, the effects of the inflationary environment of the past few years faced by the insurance industry were still very evident. This is because inflation adjustments take time to be fully reflected in the individual portfolios of insurers,” commented Christoph Oehy, CEO of PERILS.
“In addition, real growth and reassessment of exposures after loss events have clearly had an impact,” he added.
“Furthermore, we observe a general increase in insurance penetration in countries affected by major loss events, for example for flood coverage in Germany following the 2022 Bernd flood event or earthquake coverage in Turkey following last year’s Kahramanmaras Earthquake Sequence.”
The information is available for several natural perils in 21 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The IED 2024 for Canada, compiled by PERILS subsidiary CatIQ, will be released in May.
The IED 2024 is produced from the ground-up by collecting sums insured information from the majority of the insurance market across all territories covered by PERILS. The market sums insured are available by CRESTA zone, property line of business and coverage type. The in-force date of the exposure data is Jan. 1, 2024. Information about loss limits and deductibles is also provided.
Source: PERILS
Photograph: Damage caused to a home after a 400-year-old oak tree was uprooted by Storm Eunice, in Stondon Massey, near Brentwood, Essex, England, Saturday Feb. 19, 2022. (Nicholas.T.Ansell/PA via AP)
Topics Property
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