The total insurance market in Cambodia premium reached $201.7 million as of the third quarter of this year, an increase of 8.2 percent over the same period in 2019.
The growth was driven by a sharp rise in the general insurance market, which grew by 18.2 percent, the life insurance market by 2.8 percent, but micro-sized insurance saw a decline by 22 percent, according to a report of the Insurance Association of Cambodia on Cambodia’s insurance market update in the third quarter of 2020.
The general insurance market continues to grow significantly, with gross premiums of about $87.9 million in the third quarter of 2020, up from $74.4 million in the third quarter of 2029. The increase in general insurance premiums came from almost all general insurance products, including engineering insurance, ship-aircraft-transportation insurance, health insurance, property insurance, vehicle insurance and other insurance.
The life insurance market grew slightly by 2.8 percent in the third quarter of 2020, while in the same period in 2019, it increased by 49 percent. Gross premiums for the life insurance market in the first nine months of 2020 reached about $109.8 million, up from $106.8 million in the same period in 2019. The association said because life insurance products are a form of personal insurance, this small increase indicates the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The micro-sized insurance market is seen to be severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis, said the report, adding that the micro-sized insurance premium in the first three quarters of 2020 reached $4.1 million, a year-on-year decrease of 21.7 percent.
The association said the insurance market provides a level of financial security to citizens as well as businesses that have been at risk in the past. The amount of compensation paid by the insurance company to the customer as of the third quarter of 2020 amounted to $21.7 million, of which the amount paid by the general insurance companies was $16.1 million, $4.7 million by life insurance companies, and US$750,000 by micro-sized insurance companies. Chea Vannak
This article was first published in Khmer Times. All contents and images are copyright to their respective owners and sources.