Asia’s insurance industry has the weakest growth—here’s why

Growth was heavily impacted by underperformance of several countries.

With underperforming countries in major markets such as China, Asia has the weakest growth in the insurance industry amongst the major regions of the world, global insurer Allianz revealed.

In the Global Insurance Report 2022, the report revealed growth in Asia was significantly weaker than the global average. In the life insurance market for example, it only clocked a +0.9% growth rate well below the global average of +4.4%. Asia’s non-life segment meanwhile grew by +1.7% far from the +6.3% global average.

The common factor in the below average performance of Asia was mainly due to underperformance of China. In the life segment, China holds nearly 13% of the global premium volumes written. According to Allianz the market shrank by -1.7% in 2021.

“The premium decline is mainly due to stricter regulation, i.e. the data of failed insurance companies no longer being included in the statistics. Underlying growth seemed to be closer to +4%, which – admittedly – is also rather weak for the Chinese market,” Allianz said.

This is the same case for the non-life segment which saw the market shrinking by -1.7% in the last year.

Besides China, negative growth rates in the life insurance industry in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan also put a huge drag on the region’s growth. In the non-life segment, Japan’s premium volume almost stagnated at +0.2% growth rate, pushing down the regional average growth.

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