Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 22
By Abbas Akhundov - Trend:
The Azerbaijani Finance Ministry has predicted insurance market growth in 2014 at the level of 2013 at 15-20 percent, head of the State Insurance Supervision Service under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Finance Namiq Khalilov told Trend on Tuesday.
The total volume of premiums of all companies existing in the country amounted to 405.68 million manat (annual growth of 18.44 percent), while payments made during the reporting period reached 122.8 million manat (a 30.83 percent growth).
"The insurance sector share in the country's GDP will continue growing in 2014," he said. "In 2013, the figure was 0.71 percent compared to 0.64 percent in the previous year."
"As of 2012, the world average index hit 6.5 percent," he added. "It was 1.82 percent in Ukraine, Russia - 1.33 percent, Belarus - 0.94 percent and Kazakhstan - 0.71 percent.
"Our country ranks fifth on this index in the CIS after those countries, but the country is approaching the level of Belarus. If we take into account today's market growth rates, the country could rank fourth in the near future. Moreover, it is not being excluded that the country will have additional growth drivers in the coming years. This may increase the market volume up to one billion manat, while the insurance share in GDP which is up to two percent. This will be the best index in the CIS."
There are 28 insurance and one reinsurance companies in Azerbaijan.
The official exchange rate is 0.7844 AZN/USD on Jan. 22.
Translated by NH
Edited by SM