October 22 (SeeNews) - Romania's insurance market grew by a nominal 2.99% on the year to 4.55 billion lei ($1.6 billion/1.1 billion euro) in gross written premiums (GWP) in the first half of 2009, preliminary data from the country's insurance regulator, CSA, showed on Thursday.
GWP from general insurance amounted to 3.77 billion lei, or 82.9% of the total, growing by 5.64% on the year. Life insurance fell by 8.13% year-on-year to 780 million lei, CSA said in a report on its website.
Romania’s insurance sector accounted for 1.77% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008, which expanded by a real 7.1% to 503.9 billion lei.
The top five players on the market in terms of GWP at the end of 2008 were Allianz-Tiriac, Omniasig Vienna Insurance Group, Asirom, ING Asigurari de Viata, and Astra.
(1 euro = 4.2927 Romanian lei)