March 13 (SeeNews) - The assets managed by Bulgarian insurance companies amounted to some 9.64 billion levs ($5.25 billion/4.9 billion euro) as at end-December 2022, a decrease of 4.8% compared to a year earlier, the central bank said on Monday.
In quarterly terms, however, the assets managed by Bulgarian insurers were 4.3% higher at the end of the last year, having expanded by 396.9 million levs, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said in a quarterly insurance sector report.
The assets of general insurance companies inched down by an annual 0.4% to roughly 6.98 billion levs as of end-2022, while the assets managed by life insurance companies dropped 14.5% to 2.66 billion levs over the same period.
Compared to the third quarter of 2022, assets of general insurance companies assets of general insurance companies were up by 5.5% or 362.3 million, whereas those of life insurance companies went up 1.3%, or by 34.5 million, on the quarter.
The assets of general insurance companies accounted for 72.4% of the sector's total, growing from 69.3% at the end of the fourth
quarter of 2021.
Securities other than shares constituted 46.6% of all insurance companies' assets as of end-December, compared to a share of 44.3% a year earlier. In terms of geographical breakdown of assets, investments in Bulgaria decreased by a yearly 12.9% to 3.78 billion levs in the final quarter of 2022. At the same time, assets invested in all other EU countries rose by an annual 3.8% to some 5.1 billion levs, representing 52.9% of the total.
The number of insurance companies active in Bulgaria fell to 44 at the end of December from 49 a year earlier.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)