Azerbaijan, Baku, 13 March / Trend I.Khalilova /
Azerbaijani insurance market will grow slightly in 2013 by 40-60 million manat, chairman of the Başak İnam Sığorta insurance company Orkhan Hasanov told Trend.
"If we analyse the situation on the insurance market we see that market growth last year, not considering mandatory insurance was low totalling nearly 10 per cent. Therefore, a significant growth is not expected this year either. The insurance market will only grow by 40-60 million manat," Hasanov said.
In 2012, the market grew by 60.8 per cent, reaching 342.52 million manat with payments of 93.86 million manat (a 52.45 per cent increase).
The State Insurance Supervision Service under the Azerbaijani Finance Ministry also expects this year's growth in the country's insurance market to rise 20 per cent.
"In 2013, we don't expect such a significant growth as in 2012. We do not see such a strong driver of growth this year as with the introduction of compulsory insurance in the past year. We expect premium growth at 15-20 per cent due to the deepening and expanding of coverage in the market," head of the State Insurance Supervision Service Namik Khalilov said earlier.
According to him, 2012 has laid a good foundation for further development of the insurance market of Azerbaijan, since the growth of the market has been partially achieved through the development of different types of voluntary insurance.
"Last year was a year of mass insurance development and increase in agency sales," Khalilov said.
According to the Finance Ministry, in January-February 2013, the total premiums of all companies operating in the country was 78.76 million (annual growth by a third) and payments made during the period amounted to 16.214 million (an increase of almost 70 per cent).
There are 28 insurance and a reinsurance company operating in Azerbaijan.
