Lack of cat sees economic losses tumble says Swiss Re

According to Swiss Re’s latest Sigma estimates, this year has seen economic losses from disasters slashed by 62%, with $44bn in H1 2017, against $117bn in H1 2016.

Economic losses in the first of 2017 are well below the 10-year average of $120bn. This has been attributed to “fewer and less intense events”.

The biggest losses came from US storm, with four events between February and May causing insured losses of more than $1bn.

A high number of smaller storms and other weather events, including flood, in the US led to insured losses of roughly $16bn in H1 2017.

Swiss Re chief economist Kurt Karl said: “Fortunately, in the US, most households and businesses are insured against wind risk so they are financially protected when severe storms strike.”

Cyclone Debbie in Australia in late March was the biggest event outside of the US, with $1.3bn in insured losses.

While insured losses also fell 36% from $36bn to H1 2016 to $23bn in H1 2017, low economic losses meant the rate of insured loss against economic loss increased 21 percentage points from 31% in 2016 to 52% in 2017.