Gross written premiums amounted to EUR 26.9 billion at regional level, up by 7.67% y-o-y. At the same time, claims paid only increased by 0.03% y-o-y, to EUR 12.12 billion.

Except for Slovenia, all CEE markets saw a positive dynamic, in many cases at double-digit rates. The highest growth rates belong, in general to the smaller markets in the region, as Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro etc.). Among the most relevant markets in region, Poland saw the highest growth rate, of 13.4%. Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Czechia remained in the single-digit zone, while Slovenia recorded a negative change of about 10%.

The main reason for the Slovenian negative dynamic is the GWP fall in non-life insurance, by 16.7%, as a result of the convulsion cause by the governmental decision to abolish, starting with January 1st 2024 the voluntary supplementary health insurance and replace it by a mandatory health contribution managed by the public Health insurance institute of Slovenia. All the policies issued by the insurance companies that provide supplementary health insurance have automatically expired at 31 Decembre. More details on this topic are available on the country pages of this report

Poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia remained the Top 5 countries in total GWP terms. Romania reversing places with Hungary is the only notable change in the regional the hierarchy as compared with the previous reporting periods. Yet, as the two markets have nearly equal weights in the regional GWP, their relative position in the ranking is not very significant.

Life insurance GWP totaled EUR 6.89 billion across the CEE, by 5.78% more y-o-y. After several reporting periods that saw a slightly negative trend of the regional life insurance market, driven by the downsizing trend of the Polish market, in the first six months of 2024 the trend in Poland remained positive for a second year in the row. The sales of Unit-Linked (UL) products also entered on a positive trend, with GWP increasing by 4.6%, to approx. EUR 1.84 billion.

Only Czechia saw a negative trend in life insurance, mostly driven by the decreasing volume of Unit-Linked (U-L) products sales. Hungary experienced a similar negative trend in the U-L products sales, which decreased by about 2%, but this wasn’t enough to reverse the overall growth of the life insurance segment. Poland experienced a nearly 8% increase in life insurance GWP, a positive trend that was observed across all life insurance subclasses.

Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Slovenia (preliminary figures) and Romania formed the Top 5 life insurance markets, accounting together for about 82% of the regional GWP.

Non-life insurance GWP accounted for EUR 20.01 billion, 8.34% up y-o-y at regional level. At the same time, claims paid went up by 3.7%, to EUR 8.13 billion. All markets saw a positive trend in the premiums’ evolution, at rather high paces considering the difficult economic conditions, except for Slovenia. In many markets paid claims also increased, in some cases even faster than the GWP.

Poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia are the Top 5 non-life markets, a hierarchy that remained stable throughout the last years. The five markets account together for about 76% of the gross premium written across the region.

Motor insurance remains the main business segment in the non-life segment. In 1H, GWP reached EUR 6.07 billion (7.3% up y-o-y) for MTPL insurance and EUR 4.45 billion (12.8% up y-o-y) for Motor Hull. For the time being, motor insurance remains the most affected business sector by inflation. Despite the relative cooling of inflation rates, claims inflation is a persistent issue that insurers must address. While motor hull insurance prices have risen in most markets, insurers in the MTPL insurance class continue to try to keep tariffs as low as possible, as the business is extremely price sensitive. However, MTPL prices are beginning to rise, albeit in very small increments.

Poland, Romania, Czechia, Hungary and Croatia are the Top 5 MTPL markets, controlling about 81% of the MTPL premiums production in the region. Romania remained the second ranked market in the region despite the low growth rate triggered by the temporary cap on tariffs imposed after the Euroins Romania failure. As the cap will be maintained until the year-end, it is expected that the slow dynamic of this market segment will persist.

Poland, Czechia, Romania, Slovenia and Bulgaria are, according XPRIMM estimations, the Top 5 Motor Hull insurance markets, accounting together about 80% of the Motor Hull GWP in the region.

GWP for property insurance reached EUR 4.24 billion, 11.7% up y-o-y. Compensations paid for property claims increased overall by about 18.6%, to EUR 1.33 billion, even not taking into account the claims paid by Romanian and Slovenian insurers which are not available. Several weather episodes hit the region in the first half of 2024 and, although there were not recorded actual catastrophes, their aggregated impact is still important. In addition, as stressed out by several insurers’ associations in the region, the value of the average damage is visibly increasing, not only because of the more destructive nature of the events, but also because of the increasing value of the assets and repair costs. However, the year-end expectations are very different as starting July, several extreme weather events were reported, insured losses amounting to significant amounts despite the rather low property insurance penetration in the region.

Visit the CEE statistical webpage to see regional statistical data for the main business lines.