Has global recession affected the insurance market in Russia?
It has, but the crisis can also be seen as a channel for the development of the insurance market. In a challenging economical situation, small, unreliable companies have to leave the market and professional, financially stable companies will stay. Before the crisis, the Russian insurance market was one of the fastest growing in the world. The property and casualty insurance market was growing at 15 – 20 % per year. Based on the first quarter of 2009, no market growth is expected and recent scenarios estimate an 8 –10 % decrease of the market this year. The crisis has affected the main drivers of Russian insurance market: motor insurance (the number of new cars acquired dropped with 50 % for 6M 2009) and voluntary medical insurance (many companies are reducing their social packages).
