Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 13
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend
Azerbaijan’s insurance market will continue its growth in 2018 as well, Khayal Mammadkhanli, an insurance expert, chairman of the committee of insurance intermediaries of the Azerbaijan Insurers Association, told Trend Aug. 13.
He said that the results of the first half of 2018 are very interesting and optimistic for Azerbaijan’s insurance market.
“The growth on compulsory types of insurance wasn’t very significant, but it is encouraging that the growth on most types of voluntary insurance has been observed,” he noted. “The case is that the market of compulsory insurance is always limited. After saturation of the market, the growth rates of compulsory types of insurance always weaken and depend only on the increase in premiums. However, voluntary types of insurance always have great prospects, and the fact that they demonstrate growth is a good indicator.”
In general, even if the growth of Azerbaijan’s insurance market in 2018 doesn’t exceed last year’s indicator, the growth will still be close to this indicator, the expert said.
“I believe that the insurance market this year will be able to reach 600 million manats,” Mammadkhanli said. “That is, if last year the insurance premiums amounted to about 570 million manats, this year the market will grow by another 30 million manats.”
The expert noted that another interesting fact is the reduction of payments of insurance companies, and this leads to an increase in the profitability of the sector.
“This is very good for the market,” he noted. “The reduction in payments is by no means consequence of the fact that companies refuse to pay their own customers. The case is that the number of insured events and losses decrease. Such tendency in the future will allow insurance companies to make greater profits, allocate more funds for investments and expansion, as well as for the introduction of new services.”
The insurance companies operating in Azerbaijan collected premiums worth 396.37 million manats in January-June 2018, which is 43.5 percent higher than in the same period last year.
Payments of the insurance companies for the same period amounted to 119.3 million manats, which is 4.1 percent less than in the first half of 2017.
Some 72.4 percent (286.84 million manats) of all premiums in the market fell on voluntary insurance, 27.6 percent (109.53 million manats) on compulsory insurance. The share of voluntary insurance payments amounted to 73 percent (87.11 million manats), and compulsory insurance accounted for 27 percent (32.2 million manats) of all payments.
Last year, the Azerbaijani insurance market grew by almost 15 percent, and the insurance premiums exceeded 500 million manats for the first time.
Presently, 21 insurance companies are functioning in Azerbaijan.
(1.7 manats = 1 USD on Aug. 13)
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_Mammadov