Baku, Azerbaijan, July 9
By Kheyraddin Nasirzade - Trend:
The volume of life insurance is decreasing in Azerbaijan’s insurance market, expert in the field of insurance, chairman of the committee of insurance intermediaries of the Azerbaijan Insurers Association Khayal Mammadkhanli told Trend.
This happened because of the last-year abolishment of the rules, according to which citizens who apply for a life insurance policy were exempted from paying taxes and payments to the State Social Protection Fund of Azerbaijan, he said.
Now, when applying for a life insurance policy, citizens have to make payments to the State Social Protection Fund of Azerbaijan. In this regard, the chairman noted that there is a significant difference in insurance fees in this area, he said, adding that survival insurance also decreased this year.
The expert added that the market for voluntary property insurance is shrinking. Despite several cases of fire that occurred in Azerbaijan, it was expected that the number of applications for voluntary property insurance will increase, however, statistics on insurance premiums show the opposite, he said.
The expert also noted that there is significant increase in the field of compulsory motor third party liability insurance (CTP) in Azerbaijan. He explained this by the fact that the number of cars brought into Azerbaijan is growing significantly, so there is a need for compulsory insurance.
Growth was also observed in voluntary motor personal damage insurance (CASCO), he noted, adding that premiums on this type of insurance increased by 3-4 million manats.
He said that if new insurance products aren’t created in the second half of this year, this year will be significantly weaker in terms of premiums compared to previous years.
In January-May 2019, the volume of the life insurance market in Azerbaijan amounted to 116.25 million manats, which is 26.4 percent less than in the same period last year. Azerbaijani insurance companies collected insurance premiums worth 319.272 million manats, which is 9 percent less than in the same period last year.