Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 30
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
The amount of losses covered by the Iranian insurance industry over the first nine months of the current fiscal year (starting March 20) has increased by 23 percent.
The head of the Central Insurance of Iran, Abdolnaser Hemmati, has said that the industry has covered worth of $145 trillion rials (about $3.9 billion at the official exchange rate on Jan. 30) of losses over the nine-month period, IRNA news agency reported.
Saying that the value of premiums collected by the Iranian insurance industry has increased by 20 percent, he added that the Iranian insurers in this period issued 42.7 billion polices.
According to the official, third party insurance as well as life and health policies amounted for the 70 percent of the total policies.
Mentioning that the volume of life insurances in the country has increased by 70 percent over the past two years, Hemmati stated that 2.5 million people purchased life insurance policies over the last fiscal year and currently about 14.5 million Iranians have this type of insurance. The life polices account for a 13.8 percent share of the industry’s total portfolio.
The industry over the last year gained seven trillion rials (about $186.9 million) and paid 10.5 trillion rials ($280.4 million) in taxes and duties.
He further touched upon a 20 percent growth of the industry, forecasting that the penetration rate of insurance in Iran would surpass 2.2 percent by the year end.