FULL-YEAR CATASTROPHE LOSSES BELOW AVERAGE, SAYS STUDY

An estimated 19,000 people worldwide were killed by natural or man-made catastrophes during 2002, Swiss Re has noted in a Sigma research study. Beyond the human cost, financial losses from all of the year’s 300 or so major events were put by the reinsurer at $40bn, of which the insurance industry’s liability is seen as about $12bn. The figure marks a fall to a below-average annual loss level, following 2001’s extraordinary losses. Since the Sigma reports were first issued in 1990, total economic losses have averaged $68bn a year and insurers’ liability has averaged $21.5bn . The report noted that natural catastrophe losses estimated at $10bn have again hit p/c insurers far harder than man-made losses, just as they have done in every year reported on by Sigma bar 2001, when the September 11 attacks profoundly changed the figures. Major natural catastrophes in 2002 included the European floods of July and August, which generated insured losses of $3.2bn, as well as a series of tornadoes in the US in April which cost insurers $1.5bn and Hurricane Lili-related losses of $650m. Man-made catastrophes, which accounted for insured losses of about $2bn, were mainly due to major fires, aviation and space disasters.