Tehran, Iran, April 16
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad – Trend:
The volume of purchase of life insurance policies in Iran has increased by 30 percent over the last fiscal year which ended on March 21.
The head of the Central Insurance of Iran, Abdolnaser Hemmati, has described the 30 percent surge as a proper growth concerning the country’s inflation rate.
Addressing the opening ceremony of an exhibition on insurance in the country, he added that the penetration rate of insurance hit 2.3 percent over the last year, Trend's correspondent reported from the event.
He further said that the financial turnover of the industry, in the meantime, stood at 500 trillion tomans (about $119 billion).
The number of losses covered by the Iranian insurance industry over the first nine months of the last fiscal year (starting March 20) increased by 23 percent.
Abdolnaser Hemmati earlier 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.
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.
The industry in the preceding year (fiscal 2016/17) gained seven trillion rials (about $186.9 million) and paid 10.5 trillion rials ($280.4 million) in taxes and duties.