Takaful News - Saudi Arabia to account for more than half of Gulf insurance market
by 2020
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Dec 2015
Between 2015 and 2020, the Saudi Arabian insurance industry is likely to be the most dominant in the Gulf region, accounting for 51% of the GCC insurance industry in 2020, compared to 36.6% last year, according to a report by Alpen Capital.
The UAE market, the biggest in the Gulf with a 41% share last year, will see its slice of the region’s pie fall by about 10 percentage points to 31.2% in 2020. The other GCC countries, with market shares ranging from 3.3% to 9.8% in 2014, will also see these shares declining by 2020, though the declines will be smaller than that of the UAE. Bahrain is forecast to have a share of 1.9% (down from 3.3% at present), Kuwait 2.3% (from 4.5%), Oman 3.9% (from 4.7%) and Qatar 9.4% (from 9.8%).
During the forecast period, Saudi Arabia is expected to register the fastest insurance industry growth of 25.6%, followed by Qatar (17.8%), Oman (15.2%), UAE (13.4%), Bahrain (7.8%) and Kuwait (5.8%).
The growth of the Saudi insurance market is largely fuelled by its large population and stringent enforcement of favourable laws by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency.