The insurance sector contracted by 12.05 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020, latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics have shown.
Figures obtained from the NBS on the industry’s performance also revealed that the insurance sector accounted for 8.6 per cent of the entire financial sector in the period under review.
Part of the report read, “The finance and insurance sector consists of the two subsectors, financial institutions and insurance, which accounted for 91.40 per cent and 8.6 per cent of the sector respectively in real terms in Q4 2020.
“As a whole, the sector grew at –1.10 per cent in nominal terms (year-on-year), with the growth rate of financial institutions as 0.07 per cent while –12.05 per cent was recorded for insurance.
“The overall rate was lower than in Q4 2019 by –24.43 per cent points and –7.01 per cent points than the preceding quarter.”
According to the report, quarter on quarter growth was 26.88 per cent, while annual growth of this sector was 11.98 per cent in 2020.
The sector’s contribution to the overall nominal GDP was 2.80 per cent in Q4 2020, lower than the 3.12 per cent it represented a year earlier, but higher than the contribution of 2.46 per cent it made in the preceding quarter.
It stated that for 2020, the sector contributed 3.11 per cent of aggregate nominal GDP.
Growth in this sector, in real terms, totaled –3.63 per cent, lower than the rate recorded in Q4 2019, and the rate recorded in the preceding quarter.
Quarter on quarter, real growth stood at 26.07 per cent, it stated.
The NBS revealed that the annual growth of 9.37 per cent was recorded in 2020, compared to 2.57 per cent in 2019.
The contribution of finance and insurance to real GDP stood at 3.07 per cent, lower than the contribution of 3.19 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019 by –0.12% points, but higher than 2.67 per cent recorded in Q3 2020 by 0.40 per cent points.
It added that the annual sectoral contribution recorded in 2020 was 3.36 per cent.
