Malaysia: Non-life market outlook expected to be flat for next 18 months
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Oct 2015
The outlook for the Malaysian general insurance industry for the second half of this year and 2016 is expected to be stagnant due to the fall in new car sales and in the market value of used cars.
The CEO of the Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII), Mr Syed Moheeb Syed Kamarulzaman, said that the insurance industry’s growth depended on the two factors as 50% of its portfolio was motor business.
The current slowdown in the domestic and global economies would last until 2016 and the general insurance industry would not see much growth in the motor insurance sector, he said.
He said when the market value for used cars declined, it would affect insurance premiums and when new car sales slowed down, the lower sales would affect them as well. New car sales would usually stagnate in the second half of the year and hence year-on-year, there would not be much growth seen for the period.
He said the motor insurance industry registered a much slower growth rate of 2.1% for the first half of this year compared with 8.3% for the same period last year.