On December 29 Munich Re released an annual review showing insurers’ losses from natural disasters increased by approximately 50 percent in 2008.  The higher losses were attributed primarily to hurricanes Ike and Gustav in the Caribbean, with climate change cited as an increasingly important factor.  Insured losses for 2008 totaled $45 billion, compared with nearly $30 billion in 2007.  Munich Re said that total economic losses increased to approximately $200 billion, compared with $82 billion last year.  The devastating earthquake in China’s Sichuan province in May caused overall losses of $85 billion, making the quake the world’s most costly disaster, but insured losses totaled only $300 million. Munich Re said that the long term trend of high losses from natural disasters related to weather continued last year.

Catastrophe Figures for 2008 (Munich Re 12/29/08)

January 8, 2009