2011 will have the highest catastrophe-related economic losses in history, costing 30,000 lives and USD350 billion for the world economy, Swiss Re has estimated.
The re insurer estimated that the total losses from the disaster cost the insurance industry alone around USD108 billion, more than double the 2010 figure of USB48 billion.
The year ranked in as the second costliest on record for natural disasters.
“2011 would have been the costliest year ever for the insurance industry if Japan had been more fully insured,” said Swiss Re, referring to the earthquake which sparked a tsumani and the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March.
“On top of people losing their loved ones, societies are faced with enormous financial losses that have to be borne by either corporations, relief organisations or governments and, ultimately, taxpayers,” said Kurt Karl, Swiss Res chief economist.
The most expensive year for insurers was 2005, the year when hurricane Katrina hit the United States which, along with other disasters, cost the industry $123 billion.
