PREMIUMS in China's life insurance market edged up in January from the same month in 2012 but there was a huge jump in property premiums, according to data yesterday.
The premium income of life insurance companies added just 0.23 percent from last January to 1.4 trillion yuan (US$224 billion) last month, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement yesterday.
Analysts said they viewed the weak growth in life premiums as a decline that indicated another difficult year for the sector because last month had five more working days than January last year due to the arrival of Lunar New Year in February this year.
Liu Yang, an analyst with Shanghai Securities Co, said the life insurance sector has started the new year disappointingly as it faced intense competitive pressure from banks and various wealth management products.
Property insurance premiums jumped 23.62 percent to 61.2 billion yuan on account of car insurance making up 75 percent of the premiums, the CIRC added.
Liu expected an uncertain outlook on investment returns while an accelerating interest rate liberalization may affect profits and income of insurers.
January and February are considered as a high season for the insurance industry during which insurers may meet up to 40 percent of their annual targets.
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