Premium volumes declined in the UK last year, but its insurance market displaced Japan to become the third largest in the world, according to Swiss Re.
The UK moved up to third place last year with premiums of US$63bn, including Lloyd’s, switching position with Japan, which slipped to fourth, the Swiss Re insurance report said.
“The UK gained one ranking pace, even with a decline in premium volumes,” the report noted.
But the size of the UK market is still well below the two global leaders.
According to the sigma data, the US continued as the largest insurance market in the world, with total premiums of close to US$3trn in 2022.
“Its global market share rose from 40% to 44%, driven by strong premium growth in nominal terms (8.6%) and US dollar appreciation against virtually all major currencies,” the report said.
China recovery to have little global impact
China was the second largest market with premium volumes of US$698bn, more than 10 times the size of the UK market in third.
However, Swiss Re said this year’s recovery in China will have little spill over impact on the global economy.
“The increasing integration of China into the world economy over many years, including in supply chains, has made developments there a main factor shaping global growth and inflation conditions,” it said.
“Given the reopening of its economy from pandemic-induced shutdowns in December last year, we expect China will be one of the few countries to register stronger growth this year than in 2022.
“In prior episodes of recovery in China, growth was mostly investment-led but so far this year it has been based mostly on demand for domestic services.
“Hence, higher demand in China does not reverse our baseline outlook of global disinflation this year.
“We anticipate only a limited upside inflationary boost via commodity prices, partly offset by improving supply chain conditions,” the report added.
Elsewhere, France, Germany and South Korea maintained their rankings, albeit losing premium market share as a result of contracting markets and currency devaluations.
Canada, India and most notably Brazil increased their shares of global premiums. The share of the five largest markets rose from 66.4% to 68.2%.
There were eight Asian markets in the top 20 rankings, with a 24% market share in 2022.
Brazil had the greatest growth in its insurance market, expanding by 20.7%. The country with the largest decline was Taiwan, which saw its market fall by 23.8%
India was one of the fastest growing insurance markets in the world, and Swiss Re forecast that it will be the sixth largest by 2032 ahead of Germany, Canada and South Korea.
“Our outlook is based on expectations of strong economic growth, rising levels of disposable income, India’s young population, increased risk awareness and also digital penetration, and regulatory developments,” the report said.
Other countries completing the top 20 insurance markets included Australia at 14, Hong Kong at 15, Spain at 16, Switzerland at 17, Sweden at 18, , Singapore at 19 and South Africa at 20.