September 13 (SeeNews) - The assets managed by Bulgarian insurance companies grew by 10.3% year-on-year to reach 6.6 billion levs ($3.8 bilion/3.4 billion euro) at the end of June, the country's central bank said on Tuesday.
The assets of life insurance companies increased by 11.9% on the year to 1.75 billion levs as of end-June, while the assets managed by general insurance companies rose by 9.7% to 4.86 billion levs, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said on its website.
Compared to the end of March, total insurance companies' assets were 5.5% higher at the end of June, with life insurers' assets up 0.5% and general insurers' assets up 7.4%.
At the end of June, the share of the assets of life insurance companies in the total assets was 26.5%, up from 26.1% a year ago, but down from 27.8% at the end of March.
The share of general insurance companies in the overall assets was 73.5%, down from 73.9% at end-June 2015 and 72.2% at end-March 2016.
Among the instruments included in the assets of insurance companies, the proportion of securities other than shares dipped to 49.3% from 49.5% at end-June 2015, the share of deposits fell to 11.4% from 12.9%, while the share of claims from insurance operations rose to 11.6% from 11.0%.
By geographical breakdown, insurers' investments in Bulgaria increased by 4% on the year to 3.27 billion levs as of end-June. However, their share decreased to 49.5% from 52.4% a year earlier.
Assets invested in EU countries jumped by 14.3% on the year to reach 2.96 billion levs at end-June. Their share increased to 44.8% from 43.2%.
(1 euro=1.95583 levs)