Strong growth of the Saudi insurance market in 2008

The international downturn does not seem to have affected the Saudi market whose turnover has progressed by 27% in 2008. The premium volume has reached 10.9 billion SAR (2.90 billion USD) versus 8.6 billion SAR (2.29 billion USD) in 2007. Non life insurance accounts for 56% of the market shares versus 44% for life and health.

The growth rate for life and health business is of 57% in 2008 whereas it is only of 6.3% for non life. Motor insurance accounts for 44% of non life market while fire and engineering account respectively for 7% and 6%. Insurance density has grown from 358 SAR (96 USD) in 2007 to 440 SAR (117 USD) in 2008. Penetration rate is posting a slight increase of 0.62% in 2008 versus 0.61 in 2007.