Hong Kong: Insurance premiums grow by 8% to $62bn in 2017
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Nov 2018
The total gross premiums in the Hong Kong insurance market reached HK$489.2bn ($62.4bn) in 2017, representing a y-o-y increase of 8.3%, according to data released by the Insurance Authority.
In brief, premiums for the different classes of business in 2017 were:
Gross premium growth was mainly driven by growth in accident and health business followed by motor vehicle business, of which the amounts were HK$15.7bn (increased by 12.2%) and HK$5.9bn (increased by 7.7%) respectively in 2017.
The overall underwriting performance of general insurance business turned from a profit of HK$1.8bn in 2016 to a loss of HK$800m in 2017. The overall net claims incurred ratio increased from 58.6% in 2016 to 63.8% in 2017.
The deteriorated claims situation of general insurance business in 2017 was mainly due to unfavourable claims experience in property damage reinsurance inward business resulting from typhoon Hato which struck southern China in August 2017. As such, the underwriting performance of the overall property damage business turned from a profit of HK$900m in 2016 to a loss of HK$1.2bn in 2017, which was the first time in the past five years and became the largest contributor to the overall underwriting loss in 2017. On the other hand, both accident and health business and pecuniary loss business recorded strong growth in underwriting profit to HK$321m (increased by 19%) and to HK$320m (increased by 41%) respectively.
With regard to the two major classes of compulsory insurance business, the underwriting losses of both the direct motor vehicle business and the employees’ compensation business widened from HK$199m to HK$521mn, and from HK$431m to HK$584m respectively. A