China's life insurance sector expected to see faster growth

BEIJING - China's life insurance sector will see its premium growth rebound in 2019 and 2020, according to forecasts by Swiss Re Group, a leading reinsurance company.

Life insurance premiums in the country are expected to post an annual growth of over 10 percent in the coming two years, the China Securities Journal quoted Xing Li, an analyst with the company's research institute, as saying.

The premiums will rebound due to relatively steady economic growth, a weakening effect of previous tougher regulatory policy for investment-linked insurance products, and a relatively low base of comparison in 2018, Xing said.

China's life insurance premiums dipped 4.75 percent year on year in the first 11 months of 2018 to 1.97 trillion yuan (about $288.8 billion), official data showed.

A recovery of the sector in China will bring the premium growth in the world's emerging markets to 9 percent in 2019 and 2020, Xing predicted, noting that emerging markets will remain a strong driver for the global insurance premium growth.