In the first 10 months of 2021, GWPs increased by 10.9% YoY. GWPs in non-life insurance grew by 11.6% YoY, while life insurance grew by 8.6% YoY.

Croatian Insurance Bureau published the GWP development for October 2021. In the first 10 months of 2021, GWPs had a growth of 11.6% YoY (or HRK 981m), continuing the already strong year.

The total amount of collected GWPs was HRK 10bn, (this number includes insurers located in Croatia as well as insurers operating in Croatia but based in another EU country). The aforementioned increase was achieved on the back of strong performance of both the life and non-life insurances.

Total Croatian T12 GWP and Croatia Osiguranje T12 GWP (HRK bn)

The life segment has experienced strong growth of 8.6% YoY (or HRK 192m) to HRK 2.4bn. The largest Croatian insurance company (Croatia Osiguranje) has a market share of 16.1%, which compared to 17.5% in the same period last year is a slight decrease. Croatia osiguranje witnessed only a slight increase in its total Life GWP of 0.8% YoY, further supporting its current positions, while major competitors in the market grew much stronger in this segment. Among other biggest insurers, the highest growth in the Life segment is evidenced by Allianz Croatia (+25.8%), or HRK 76.9m of GWPs. Next up, we have Wiener Insurance Group, who experienced a growth of 17.1% YoY, or HRK 78.6m.

The dominant share of collected GWPs in Croatia lies with the Non-life segment amounting to 76%. The segment grew by 11.6% or HRK 789.4m and total GWPs sold amounted to HRK 7.58bn. Croatia Osiguranje has the biggest market share in Non-life segment of 28%, and it grew its Non-life GWPs below market average at 5.44%. Several insurers grew by more than 20% YoY, with Generali Osiguranje leading the way with 33.2% growth, followed by Triglav Osiguranje at 23.5%, Wiener Insurance Group at 23.4%, and Adriatic Osiguranje at 22.7%.

In the Non-life segment, the highest share goes to the insurance against civil liability in respect to the use of motor vehicles (which accounts for 25% of GWPs), which also recorded the highest absolute increase of HRK 315m, or 14.5%. The second-largest segment is vehicle insurance (casco policy) which accounts for 12% of total GWPs. Due to the increased demand for medical services, as well as the uncertainty with the repayments of loans (relating to the current COVID-19 crisis and its future impacts), both the health insurance and loan insurance increased, by 10.8% (or HRK 59m) and 46% (or HRK 101m) YoY, respectively. On the other hand, the highest relative decrease was in the insurance for legal support, which fell by 21% YoY or HRK 1m. While the highest nominal decrease was in accident insurance at HRK 4m or -1% YoY.

Croatia Osiguranje continues to account for about 25% the market, and the company’s market share decreased by 1.75 p.p. compared to 10M in 2020. When observing their GWPs, they amounted to HRK 2.5bn, which represents an increase of 5.7% YoY. When looking at Croatia osiguranje TTM market share it amounts to 24.17%, and shows a decrease of 1 p.p. YoY.

Croatia Osiguranje T12 Market Share (%)

Producer prices of industrial products increases by 19.6% YoY in the domestic market in October, driven by the increases in the energy sector. However, when excluding the energy sector, this increase amounts to only 3.5%.

Croatian Bureau of Statistics delivered new data on trends in the industry sector on November 9th, showing that the industrial producer price index went up by 19.6% YoY in the domestic market in October 2021. However, when excluding the energy sector, this increase amounts to only 3.5%.

This smaller amount is supported by other sectors of the industry; for example, food production sector prices went up by 3%, beverage production sector prices went up by 1%, equipment production sector prices went up by 1.7%.

With the current increases in the price of natural gas needed for energy production driven by the increased demand in the Asian markets, the political situation in Europe, and similar international events, this all has a upward pressure on the prices of the energy sector in the domestic market.

Even with all these pressures, the sector index CROBEXindustrija managed to achieve a Year-to-Date (YTD) growth of 18%, mostly driven by Saponia (90% YTD), Končar (29% YTD), Ericsson NT (23% YTD).

Even when looking at the largest indexes in Croatia like CROBEX and CROBEX10, both of these indexes experienced a YTD increase of 15% and 13% respectively.

In the end, one should take into account that the producer prices take an average of the industries, and even though an increase of almost 20% can seem like a lot in a year, when broken down into the actual drivers of this increase, we can see a different story. The prices of natural gas are among others, the main driver of this energy price increase, which is material only for a few companies like Ina, Petrokemija, i.a. But when we take into account that energy sector does not represent the majority of companies in the Croatian market, we can conclude that such a strong increase in producer prices is not so material.

Producer prices of industrial products for each month (% YoY)