Global insured losses from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters during the first half of 2016 reached US$31 billion, or 44 percent of total economic losses of US$71 billion, according to a report issued by Swiss Re’s sigma.
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In total, approximately 6,000 people lost their lives in natural catastrophes and man-made events in the first six months of the year, compared to12,000 in the first half of 2015.
Natural disasters made up the majority of both economic and insured losses, while the number of lives lost in the period fell by 50% on H1 2015.
Earthquakes in Japan, thunderstorms in the United States and Europe, and wildfires in Canada caused the largest insured losses, the report confirmed.
In particular, $68 billion of the total losses were related to natural catastrophes, and $3 billion were man-made. This is slightly above the annual average first-half loss of the previous 10 years.
The Fort McMurray wildfire was one cause of large insurance losses in the first half of 2016.
Swiss Re’s preliminary sigma study states that economic losses from the Texas events caused an economic loss of $3.5 billion, of which $3.1 billion was insured.
Three separate weather events in the USA, brought the highest claims of more than US$7 billion.
Europe was also slammed by heavy storms at the end of May and in early June, when France and Germany especially were hit with severe lightening storms and flash floods. The total insured losses from these storms and floods were US$2.8 billion.
The series of deadly earthquakes that hit Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture in April, which killed 64 people, caused extensive structural damage, fires and collapsed buildings, raked up insurance costs of $7.2 billion, it said.
While this increase may only be slight it shows how the occurrence of large catastrophe events in regions with higher insurance penetration results in a greater share of the loss falling on insurers, reinsurers, and increasingly insurance-linked securities (ILS) players.
Similar tremors in Ecuador led to insurance costs of roughly US$400 million-a considerably smaller figure due to low insurance coverage in the country.
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Disasters cost $71 billion in first half of 2016 was posted in Business of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on August 19, 2016 and was last updated on August 19, 2016.
