STATISTICS: CEE, 1H2022: upswing trend partially supported by inflation and accompanied by steep increases in paid claims

3 November 2022 — Daniela GHETU
STATISTICS:  CEE, 1H2022: upswing trend partially supported by inflation and accompanied by steep increases in paid claims
Gross written premiums amounted to EUR 22.17 billion at regional level, up by almost 7% y-o-y. At the same time, claims paid increased by 11.5% y-o-y, to EUR 12.64 billion.

Except for Poland, all CEE markets saw a positive dynamic, in many cases at double-digit rates. Slovakia makes another exception from the general upswing trend, but of a different nature, rather statistical than strictly business: the merger of the Slovak insurer Generali with Generali Ceska Pojistovna from the Czech Republic, after which Generali in Slovakia operates as a branch of Generali Ceska pojistovna, its results not being included in the official statistics of the local supervisory authority.

Romania is by far the author of the impressive performance in this respect, with a 36% y-o-y GWP growth rate. The Baltics and Czechia have also reported high growth rates. However, the high growth rates are not making such good news as it may seem, as most of the growth is an inflationary one accompanied also by similar steep increases in paid claims. It is not per chance the same countries that have seen the highest growth rates both in GWP and claims expenses, are also the countries with highest inflation. The rising inflation rate led to the growth of prices of materials and services, and therefore higher payments of gross claims paid and higher gross operating expenses, as a result of which insurers adjusted insurance prices in most non-life insurance classes throughout the first half the year. The trend is mostly visible in motor insurance.

Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia are the Top 5 countries in total GWP terms, maintaining the hierarchy at the end of 2021. However, there differences in the regional market share, as Poland lost almost 3 percentage points of its weight, mostly retrieved by Czechia (+1.5 pp) and Romania (+1pp).

Access xprimm.com and download 1H2022 aggregate CEE insurance market statistics - GWP, claims, growth rates, shares per countries on the following LoBs: overall, life, non-life, property, MoD and MTPL.

You can read a comprehensive regional and country by country analysis in the LATEST edition of the XPRIMM Insurance Report CEE, SEE & ex-USSR for 1H2022.

1512 views