Global News - Germany and France looking at EUR1-2 billion of insured losses from floods
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Jul 2016
Recent widespread flooding in Germany could result in insured losses of more than EUR1 billion (US$1.14 billion), said Artemis quoting Fitch Ratings Ltd. While in France, the insurance bill from severe flooding and storms is estimated to be as much as EUR2 billion, Artemis said, quoting Mr Pascal Demurger, director general of French mutual insurers group, the Mutuelle dÁssurance des Instituteurs de France (MAIF).
Thunderstorms and floods have hit areas of central and southern Germany as well as Belgium, Switzerland and France in May/June. Fitch Ratings said the European insurance and reinsurance sector is set for another reasonably high bill for early summer storms and floods in 2016.
Mr Peter Hoeppe, Head of Geo Risk Research and Corporate Climate Centre at Munich Re said: “The repeated heavy rainfall in France, Germany and Austria, which has resulted in severe flooding in some areas, is not unusual for the time of year as was the case during the large-scale floods at the end of May/beginning of June 2013. However, this time they are concurrent with almost stationary shower and thunderstorm activity. The scientific community has not yet been able to provide clear answers as to whether climate change is influencing the frequency and intensity of the kind of weather conditions we are currently seeing. Independently of these conditions, our data show an increase in the number of large loss events caused by convective storms in Europe since 1980 and also of the normalized losses caused by this peril.”
However, he added it was still too early to give a reliable loss estimate for the most recent storms.