According to projections by Allianz Research, the global premium volume last year rose to a new record sum of 3.66 trillion euros (excluding health insurance). Compared to 2016, the nominal increase adjusted for exchange rate effects is 3.7 percent.
Although the growth rate of premium income accelerated slightly compared to the previous year (+ 2.9 percent), it lagged behind the expansion of economic activity (+ 5.9 percent nominal growth) for the second year in a row. Insurance penetration (premiums as a percentage of GDP) has thus fallen to 5.5 percent – the lowest value in the last 30 years. At the beginning of the millennium, before the great financial crisis, this figure was on average one full percentage point higher.
"It is actually a paradoxical situation," commented Michael Heise, Chief Economist of Allianz SE. "On the one hand, the risks in the world are constantly increasing – just think of climate, demography, cyber or politics – but on the other hand, people worldwide are spending an ever smaller proportion of their income on insurance. A great joint effort by politics and industry is needed to close this 'protection gap'."