Financial Services Agency, May 30 (Reporter Xia Shuyuan) Allianz Group recently released the “2024 Allianz Global Insurance Industry Development Report” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”), which analyzes the business performance of the global insurance market in 2023 and looks forward to the development direction and industry trends of the global insurance industry in the next 10 years.

The “Report” shows that in the next 10 years, the Chinese insurance market will continue to develop strongly, and is expected to grow by 7.7% every year, thereby consolidating its position as the world's second-largest insurance market. In the life insurance sector, China will absolutely dominate the Asian market share.

The global insurance industry grew 7.5% in 2023, and Asia became the largest regional market for the global life insurance business

According to the “Report”, the global insurance industry is estimated to grow by 7.5% in 2023, the fastest growth since 2006. Global premium income reached 6.2 trillion euros, including life insurance premium income of 2620 billion euros, property insurance premium income of 2153 billion euros, and health insurance premium income of 1427 billion euros.

In the past 3 years alone, global premium income has increased by €1.1 trillion, or 21.5%. However, against the backdrop of high inflation, in real terms, global real premium income has risen only 0.7% since 2020, and has almost stagnated.

Compared to the situation where global premium growth in 2022 was mainly driven by the property insurance business, the growth in 2023 appears to be more balanced. The growth rate of the three major businesses of life insurance, property insurance, and health insurance was relatively close. Among them, life insurance increased by 8.4%, property insurance by 7.0%, and health insurance by 6.6%. The life insurance business, which grew by only 3.1% in 2022, achieved a strong recovery in 2023, and global business growth was mainly driven by the Asian market.

In 2023, Asian life insurance premium revenue increased by 16.2%, becoming the world's largest regional market, ahead of Western Europe, and accounting for 30% of the global market share.

However, in the property insurance business, North America is still the largest regional market in the world, with a 7.1% increase in 2023, accounting for 54.2% of the global market share. Property insurance premium income in Asia (excluding Japan) increased 6.6%, and the global market share remained at 15.5%.

The Chinese insurance market will maintain an average annual growth rate of 7.7% over the next 10 years, consolidating its position as the second largest insurance market in the world

In 2023, China's insurance market performed well. Total premium income increased 9.1% to 654 billion euros, the fastest growth in recent years.

The three major business areas of life insurance, property insurance, and health insurance all contributed to the increase in total premiums. Among them, life insurance became the main business driver, achieving 12.8% growth, ending the trend of slow growth in the previous 3 years.

In comparison, the growth in property insurance and health insurance was relatively moderate. Property insurance premium income increased 5.7%, and health insurance premium income increased 4.4%.

Despite market share, the global insurance industry is still dominated by the US. Over the past decade, the US insurance market increased its global market share from 41.3% to 44.2% in 2023.

However, China's insurance industry is still growing strongly, almost doubling its share of the global market to 10.6%. Over the next 10 years, the “Report” predicts that the Chinese market will continue to develop strongly, growing by 7.7% per year, thus strengthening its position as the world's second-largest insurance market.

The global insurance growth rate will be the same as the economic growth rate in the next 10 years, and the annual growth rate of life insurance may rise from 3.5% to 5.1%

Looking ahead to the next 10 years, the “Report” predicts that the total premium income of the global insurance industry will grow by 5.5% per year, in line with the growth rate of global GDP.

And over the past few decades, the growth of the global insurance industry has lagged behind economic growth. The weights of the 3 business areas will change.

The “Report” shows that as inflation-related price increases gradually disappear, property insurance will achieve an annual increase of 4.7%, which is slightly lower than the 5.0% annual increase in the past 10 years. Health insurance growth is also expected to slow, but it will still achieve a high increase of 7.3% per year. In contrast, benefiting from higher interest rates, the annual growth rate of life insurance is likely to rise from 3.5% to 5.1%.

Overall, total global premiums will increase by nearly 5 trillion euros over the next 10 years. Most of this growth will be in the life insurance business (€1887 billion). However, Asia (excluding Japan) is still the growth engine of the global life business, growing by about 7.3% per year, reaching 928 billion euros, accounting for about half of the world's absolute premium growth, more than North America (377 billion euros) and Europe (323 billion euros) combined.

China is expected to grow by 7.7% per year over the next 10 years, and will still absolutely dominate the Asian life insurance market share. The Indian market is expected to grow 13.6% per year over the next 10 years.

In the field of property insurance, premium increases will reach 1427 billion euros by 2034. Although the growth rate in Asia (excluding Japan: 7.1%) is significantly higher than North America's 3.8%, judging from the absolute value of premiums, the latter will clearly dominate. The increase in property insurance premiums in North America will be 584 billion euros, compared to 376 billion euros in Asia (excluding Japan); and 184 billion euros in Western Europe.