Global: Insured Nat CAT losses to exceed $14bn for 1Q2022
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | May 2022
Public and private insurers covered $14bn of Nat CAT losses in the first quarter of 2022, said the 1Q Global Catastrophe Recap report issued by Aon.
The report noted that total economic losses in 1Q2022 reached $32bn, almost 44% of which covered by public and private insurers. It added that 2022 marked the sixth consecutive year to record more than $10bn in insured losses.
“However, it is important to remind that these totals are expected to be upwardly revised, perhaps considerably, in the coming weeks and months. This type of loss development is standard and expected in the aftermath of larger scale events,” said the report.
The report imputed the increase in losses in 2022 to significant natural hazard events occurred in Western and Central Europe (windstorms Dudley/Ylenia, Eunice/Zeynep, and Franklin/Antonia), Australia (East Coast floods), Japan (16 March earthquake), and the US (severe convective storms).
The report referred to the windstorms that hit across Europe in February as the costliest event of the first quarter of 2022 with insured losses surpassing $4.3bn; the Japan earthquake in March is likely to cost insurers over $2bn; the SCS outbreaks in the US in the same month are expected to cause multi-billion-dollar loss; and the East Coast floods which is one of Australia’s costliest flood events on record. M