Romania, Europe's insurance laggard

Romania is 83rd in the world and last in Europe in a ranking of those countries whose insurance market is worth over $150 million, if looking at the weight of the insurance sector in the economy. The ranking was included in the latest issue of the Sigma magazine, one of the best known insurance magazines published by Swiss reinsurer Swiss Re. The insurance market in Romania rose by 40% in dollars to $498 million in 2002, so that the sector accounted for more than 1% of the GDP for the first time (1.09%). In spite of the growth, Romania is still behind Sri Lanka, Iran, Guatemala, Peru or Tunisia in this regard. It cannot even hope to compare against the other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, as the insurance premiums account for 2.5% to 4% in Hungary, Czech Republic or Poland. Sigma analysed the data for 174 countries in the world, and picked only the 91 where the volume of gross premiums collected was higher than $150 million in 2002. Romania’s 83rd position means it only outranks eight countries from either Asia or Africa: Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Oman, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. Considering the overall market volume, Romania ranks higher, i.e. 60th worldwide and 26th (out of 34) in Europe. ZF