Bulgarian insurers 10-mo gross premiums fall 1.5%

The gross premium income of general insurers decreased by 2.3% year-on-year to 1.06 billion levs through October, data of the Financial Supervision Commission showed.

Bulgaria's general insurance market is dominated by general motor insurance and mandatory third-party liability insurance policies for motor vehicles, which together accounted for 70.5% of total premiums in the first ten months of the year.

Life insurers posted a combined premium income of 203.95 million levs through October, up by 3.2% on the year.

The gross premium income from voluntary health insurance rose by 14.2% to 38.1 million levs in the January-October period.

A total of 185,357 Bulgarians had voluntary health insurance plans at the end of October, down from 202,105 a year earlier.

A total of 18 general insurers and 16 life insurers operated in Bulgaria in the period under review.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)