Insurers suffered record losses due to natural disasters in 2017

Last year, insured losses from natural disasters, including three major hurricanes, Harvey ,  Irma and Maria , were a record $135 billion, according to data from the world's largest reinsurance company Munich Re.

Total losses for the global economy reached $330 billion in 2017, the second highest level on record. The peak was recorded in 2011, when the  Tohoku earthquake in Japan, the economic loss amounted to $354 billion. The average figure for the last 10 years, adjusted for inflation, was $170 billion.

Munich Re takes into account data from 1980.

In total, 710 natural disasters were observed in 2017, which is higher than the average for the previous 10 years (605 per year) and for the last 30 years (490 per year).

The losses from the hurricane season in 2017 were the highest on record - $215 billion, of which less than 43% were insured - $92 billion.

"Extreme natural disasters have shown how important the role of insurance is in the process of absorbing financial losses after such disasters," says Munich Re board member Torsten Yevorrek.

The number of deaths from natural disasters last year is estimated at 10,000 people, while the average for the past 10 years is 60,000.

The share of losses in the United States was even higher than usual - 50% in 2017, compared to a long-term average of 32%. For North America as a whole, the share was 83%.

According to the calculations of the National Centers for Environmental Information in the United States, in January-October 2017 there were 15 disasters as a result of meteorological phenomena with losses exceeding $ 1 billion in each case. The current record was set in 2011 with 16 events, but it was likely updated based on last year's results.

The most significant economic damage in 2017 was caused by Hurricane Harvey, which reached the Texas coast in August. Munich Re estimates the total economic losses from Harvey at $85 billion, second only to Hurricane Katrina in terms of this indicator in the entire history of observations.

However, due to the low share of insured property in the region of Harvey's spread, insurers' losses amounted to about $30 billion. September's Hurricane Irma turned out to be the most expensive for insurers - insurance payments exceeded $32 billion with a total economic loss of about $67 billion.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine