ZAGREB, July 2, 2020 – This year will be challenging for the Croatian insurance market due to the coronavirus as premiums are projected to fall by 5.5%, but the market is expected to rebound in 2021 with an increase of 5.6%, according to a global report by the Allianz insurance group published on Thursday.
Allianz estimates that in Croatia life insurance premiums could fall by 3.4% and property and accident insurance by 6.5%.
However, after stagnating, a quick recovery is expected in 2021 and the market should grow by 5.6%. It is expected that Croatia will reach an overall annual growth of 3.6% by 2030, Alliance said and added that that is far better than the growth rate of 0.4% recorded in the previous decade.
The Eastern Europe market, which includes Croatia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine, last year recorded a growth rate of 8.6% with premiums amounting to a total of €64 billion, half of which can be attributed to Russia and Poland.
However, 2020 will be challenging for Eastern Europe, with Allianz estimating that revenue from premiums will stagnate and life insurance will decrease by 1% while the non-life insurance segment might increase by 0.6%.
Things look a little brighter in the long run and the region should recover in 2021 with a growth of about 9%. By 2030 it is estimated that the growth could reach 6.1%.
Co-author of the report Patricia Pelayo Romero said that after a challenging decade and large financial crises, Europe’s insurance industry has shown to be quite resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic.
