China insurance premiums up 51 6 pct yr yr in Q1

Chinese insurance premiums in the first quarter rose 51.6 percent from a year earlier to 297.9 billion yuan ($42.7 billion), the insurance regulator said on Wednesday. That marked a slowdown from 58.2 percent annual growth in the first two months, but it showed an acceleration from 24 percent growth in all of 2007 and 14.4 percent in 2006.

Property insurance premiums increased by an annual 24.6 percent to 64.15 billion yuan in the first three months, while life insurance premiums jumped 62.1 percent to 213.06 billion yuan, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said at a news conference. Parts of central and southern China saw the worst snowstorms in decades in the first two months of the year.

The report did not say whether the jump in premiums during the quarter was related to people taking out insurance policies following the storms. Insurers' total assets reached 2.94 trillion yuan by the end of March, the agency said, up 1.5 percent from the end of 2007. Of the 2.7 trillion yuan available for investment, about 1.868 trillion yuan was in stocks, bonds and investment funds, while 690.6 billion yuan was in bank deposits, down from 740.5 billion yuan at the end of February, it said.

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China insurance premiums up 51 6 pct yr yr in Q1