China's insurance market sees 8% rise in 2012

By Andrew Tjaardstra

Health and general insurance are behind an eight per cent growth in the Chinese insurance market to 1.55trn yuan ($248bn) in 2012.

The China Insurance Regulatory Commission has revealed that the general insurance market grew 15.4% to 533bn yuan ($85.7bn) in 2012 with health insurance premiums climbing 24.7% to 86.28bn yuan ($11.4bn). Meanwhile, the life insurance sector grew 4.5% year on year to just over 1trn yuan ($160.7bn).

The insurance sector in China now controls assets of 7.35trn yuan ($1.18trn).

Despite the overall market growing by over 8% in 2012, this was signifcantly less than the average of 20% over the last two decades. However, Swiss Re expects the market to recover to over 10% growth in 2013.