Annual General Business Statistics

(Percentage changes in brackets in the following paragraphs represent changes over 2016)

In 2017, the total gross premium and net premium of general business stood at $48.3 billion (increased by 6%) and $33.1 billion (increased by 5%). The overall retention slightly decreased from 69.2% to 68.5%.

The gross premium growth was mainly driven by growth in Accident & Health business followed by Motor Vehicle business, of which the amount were $15.7 billion (increased by 12.2%) and $5.9 billion (increased by 7.7%) respectively in 2017.

The overall underwriting performance of general insurance business turned from a profit of $1.8 billion in 2016 to a loss of $800 million in 2017. The overall net claims incurred ratio increased from 58.6% in 2016 to 63.8% in 2017.

The deteriorated claims situation of general insurance business in 2017 was mainly due to the unfavorable claims experience in Property Damage reinsurance inward business resulting from Typhoon Hato. As such, the underwriting performance of the overall Property Damage business turned from a profit of $900 million in 2016 to a loss of $1.2 billion in 2017, which was the first time in the past five years and became the largest contributor to the overall underwriting loss in 2017. On the other hand, both Accident & Health business and Pecuniary Loss business recorded strong growth in underwriting profit to $321 million (increased by 19%) and to $320 million (increased by 41%) respectively.

With regard to the two major classes of compulsory insurance business, the underwriting losses of both the direct Motor Vehicle business and the Employees’ Compensation business widened from $199 million to $521 million, and from $431 million to $584 million respectively.

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