TIRANA TIMES
TIRANA, Sep. 27 – New insurance premiums during the first ten months of this year climbed to 6.8 billion lek (around 67.5 million dollars), up only 1.65 percent compared to the same period last year, confirming the poor performance and slowdown this sector is experiencing. The number of insurance contracts continued declining, dropping to 567,101, down 11.6 percent compared the January-October 2009, the Financial Supervisory Authority said in a statement.
The market continued remaining non-life oriented with around 89.7 percent of the total premiums, leaving life insurance with a 9.6 percent share and reinsurance with 0.65 percent.
During the January-October period gross paid claims, the majority of which belongs to motor insurance, further grew to 29.3 percent compared to the same period last yeas. A majority of around 87 percent of them, worth 1.55 billion lek (15 million dollars) went to pay motor insurance claims.
Last July, the Albanian insurance market returned to growth after the 2.15 percent shrink it registered in the first half of this year. Data published by the Financial Supervisory Authority showed a 0.96 percent year-on-year growth of the market during the January-July period.
According to the Financial Supervision Authority, Albania continues to be one of the countries having the lowest annual consumption per capita of insurance.
Albanians pay on average 20 dollars annually for compulsory and voluntary insurance of vehicles, property and life, a small amount compared to other European countries.
The insurance market continues to be dominated by Sigal which holds 24 percent of the compulsory and 41 percent of the voluntary market, according to the Authority.
State-owned insurer Insig, which has been put on the privatization list of public assets, is currently the fifth biggest insurer, controlling 7.3 percent of the compulsory market and 11 percent of the voluntary.
