than double the rate of the past ten years, according to the Swiss Re’s report.
As for savings products, consumers worldwide are taking advantage of still elevated interest rates. The growth trend is strongest in the US, where individual annuity sales are expected to reach a new record of over USD 400 billion in 2024. The demand for fixed-rate annuities in the UK should also stay elevated in 2024 before slowing down during 2025 and 2026. In China, the anticipated reduction in guaranteed interest rates for savings products has been boosting sales, the report says.
The life risk protection business has been growing more steadily than the savings business in recent years. Swiss Re Institute forecasts 2.7% annual premium growth in 2025 and 2026, below the long-term trend of 3.7% per year from 2014 to 2023.
Following the repricing of risk in response to elevated claims, Swiss Re Institute expects a decade-high 4.3% global premium growth in 2024 in non-life insurance. In the following two years, premium growth is expected to decelerate, with global non-life premiums forecast to grow 2.3% annually in real terms,
below the 3.1% average of the last five years.
Global economic growth is set to continue at a solid pace. Swiss Re Institute forecasts global real GDP growth at 2.8% for 2025 and 2.7% for 2026, down from the 3.1% average growth of the pre-pandemic decade.
"The baby boomers are entering retirement at a time when higher interest rates reinvigorate the insurance savings market. It's a favourable convergence, since retirees are looking for stable and worry-free income, and the insurance industry is stepping up to meet this demand. Driven by a still elevated interest rate environment in the US, global life insurance premiums are set to reach USD 4.8 trillion by 2035, up from USD 3.1 trillion in 2024", says Paul Murray, Swiss Re's CEO Life & Health Reinsurance.
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