site.btaInsurance Market Continues to Grow Steadily in First Three Months of 2022

The Bulgarian insurance market continued to grow steadily in the first three months of 2022. Given that the reporting period includes the first five weeks of the war in Ukraine, the Bulgarian insurance market can be said to rest on stable foundations and to be resilient to crises, the Association of Bulgarian Insurers (ABI) said on Tuesday.

Total premium income in the first quarter of 2022 grew by 9.7% (BGN 885 million). Indemnity payments increased by 7.1% compared to a year earlier and amounted to BGN 336 million. It should be noted that Bulgaria is going through a period of economic challenges and high inflation, which will probably affect households' purchasing power, including their capacity to use insurance products.

A negative trend has been observed in agricultural insurance, which traditionally accounts for an insignificant share of premium income in general insurance. As at March 2022, its share dropped fourfold compared with March 2021, from 0.74% to 0.19%. Premium income collected by March 2022 was only BGN 1.3 million, which was 5.7% lower than in the like period in 2021. The premium income fall coincided with robust growth (85%) in compensation payments as of March 2022.