The Irish non-life industry enjoyed a 17% growth in gross premium and an 11.5% growth in net premium during 2002, compared with figures for 2001, revealed the Irish Annual Insurance Report.
Launched by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Harney, the report also revealed that in terms of gross premium, Irish risk premium increased by 20% and foreign risk premium increased by 21%. Irish net premium risk increased by 9.3% and foreign risk increased by 17.4%.
The net underwriting result for Irish risk business showed an 89% improvement on the 2001 figure with a loss of €42m (£30m). Of this €42m, Irish authorised companies achieved an underwriting profit of €25m while branches of companies regulated in other jurisdictions made a loss of €67m.
This follows a 14% improvement in 2001 on the previous year's result. This pattern has continued into 2003 when, it is understood, the industry made a profit on the underwriting account, said the report.
Total income in 2002 from investments attributable to the underwriting account fell 15% to €268m.
The annual report is available from the Irish government's publications sales office or from entemp.ie/cr/insurance.htm.
