Insurance market, close to 1.7bn euros

The volume of underwriting from insurance contracts in the first nine months of the year stood at 1.2 billion euros (4.25 billion RON), according to the reports sent to the Insurance Supervision Commission (CSA) by authorised insurance companies. Gross underwritten premiums in the first 9 months of the year are comparable with the gross premiums underwritten for the whole of 2005, accounting for 96% of last year’s total. If the growth pace seen so far is maintained until the end of 2006, gross underwritten premiums will reach some 1.7 billion euros, considerably surpassing figures for 2005, when gross premiums stood at 1.22 billion euros. “We consider the progression of the market in the first three quarters to be very encouraging, figures thus far have confirmed our forecasts of reaching roughly 1.7% of Gross Domestic Product,” said Angela Toncescu, chairperson of the CSA. General insurance continues to account for the largest share of the insurance market, reaching almost 1 billion euros (3.43 billion RON) in the January-September period.