In fact, Q12017 countinued the market trends recorded in 2016, with life insurance supporting the market growth (+25.43%), due to health and pension types of insurance, as data published by the Ministry of Finance of Belarus show.
The weak economic conditions in the country - recession, high inflation, denomination of the BYR following its strong devaluation against foreign currencies, high unemployment - have lead to an increasing interest of the population for insurance products which are associated with the financial advantage and profitability.
Belaruss is confronted with an adverse demographic evolution and worsening of the employed workers to pensioners ratio. During the last 16 years the number of employees in the Belarusian economy decreased by almost 400,000 people, wrote portal tut.by. In April 2016, per 1,000 employed workers counted 589 pensioners, and, in 2017, there are already 600 pensioners per the same number of workers. The National Bank took restrictive measures last year: the introduction of income tax on certain types of deposits, decrease of interest rates, as well as implementation of the domestic economy's de-dollarization policy. Thus, insurance policies have become the most effective instrument for retirement savings.
"The state is trying to solve the problem, for example, by increasing the retirement age and stimulating the birth rate. But there are really few working mechanisms and all of them either have only a temporary effect, or they have objective limitations, or will not be accepted by the society: an increase in the retirement age and the size of contributions, a reduction in the size of pensions or various benefits. In such conditions the opportunities for transforming the pension system are also complicated" stated Andrei DANILCHYK, General Director, StrakhExpertGroup Insurance Broker.
Access www.xprimm.com and download the 1Q2017 Belarusian insurance market statistics.
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