The cost to insurers of natural disasters rose to about $31 billion in the first 11 months of this year after earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand and winter storm Xynthia in Europe,Swiss Reinsurance Co.said.
“Despite notably higher than average earthquake losses, overall claims in 2010 were in line with the 20-year average due to unusually modest U.S. hurricane losses,” the Zurich-based reinsurer said today in an e-mailed statement. Insured natural- catastrophe losses in 2009 totaled $22.7 billion, Swiss Re said.
Insured losses from February’s 8.8-magnitude quake in Chile are estimated at $8 billion, making it the costliest disaster in 2010, according to the world’s second-biggest reinsurer. Xynthia, which struck at the end of the same month, may cost insurers $2.85 billion while September’s earthquake in New Zealand cost $2.68 billion, Swiss Re said.
Man-made disasters triggered additional losses of about $5 billion, including $1 billion of property claims from the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, Swiss Re said. Insured losses from natural catastrophes this year were 30 percent less than the $44 billion reported in 2008, when claims were boosted by hurricanes Ike and Gustav.
Insured losses from the deadliest event this year, the earthquake that killed 222,570 people in Haiti, were minimal, Swiss Re said. The total economic cost of natural disasters more than tripled to $222 billion while the 260,000 people who lost their lives was the highest number since 1976.
“While most of the costliest events caused by the earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand and the winter storm in Western Europe were covered by insurance, events like the earthquake in Haiti and floods in Asia were barely insured,”Thomas Hess, chief economist of Swiss Re, said in the statement.
The total cost of natural catastrophes this year may increase further because of the ongoing European winter storm season, Swiss Re said.