Industry pays $45bn claims in 2013

Insured losses from natural disasters totalled $45 billion in 2013, 22 percent below the 10-year average of $58 billion, according to Aon Benfield figures. Although the broker’s loss figures are higher than recent estimates from other market observers, they still reflect a benign US hurricane season and tell the story of higher than usual losses in Europe and Asia where flooding was a major contributory factor.

In fact, according to Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting’s Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe report, flood represented 35 percent of global economic losses last year. This is the highest percentage since 2010.

The broker’s report finds that total economic losses in 2013 reached $192 billion, 4 percent below the ten-year average of £200 billion.

This was despite the fact that the year recorded 296 separate natural disaster events, 37 above the average of 259.

An event must meet at least one of the following criteria to be classed as natural disaster by Impact Forecasting: economic loss of $50 million, insured loss of $25 million, 10 fatalities, 50 injured or 2,000 homes or structures damaged.

In a reversal from 2012, when the year’s largest natural disasters occurred in the US, the largest global events of 2013 were heavily concentrated in Europe and Asia.

Notable incidents included major flooding in central Europe, Indonesia, the Philippines, China and Australia, in addition to Super Typhoon Haiyan’s landfall in the Philippines.