MUNICH/Germany: Financial losses caused by natural disasters are increasing worldwide, said a study done by German re-insurance company Munich Re on Tuesday.
Last year, floods, storms, forest fires and other natural disasters caused losses of $270 billion around the world, said Munich Re.
According to the company’s analysis, this figure was less than that in the particularly expensive year of 2021 – which caused $320 billion in losses – but was in line with the “loss-intensive” past five years.
The most expensive catastrophe of 2022, at $100 billion, was Hurricane Ian which hit the US’ East Coast at the end of last September.
These figures are particularly important for insurance companies like Munich Re who analyze economic trends to predict spending patterns. Of the $270 billion total losses recorded last year, around $120 billion of them were insured, meaning that natural disasters are also a big financial burden for insurance companies.
“We have something like a new normal with $100 billion in annual losses for the insurance industry,” said Ernst Rauch, chief climate and geoscientist at Munich Re.
“We have exceeded this limit five times in the recent past. In the future, we will reach or exceed 100 billion more and more often,” said Rauch.
Munich Re has been documenting global losses from natural catastrophes for decades in order to calculate insurance premiums.
