MENA, life insurance still lagging behind in 2018

Magazine Issue:

Highlights [3]

Magazine date:

Jul 2019

In 2018, MENA zone recorded 9.807 billion USD in life premiums, down by 0.5% compared to 2017. Life insurance is still lagging behind and struggling to develop in this region. The sector's market share does not exceed 17% of the MENA's portfolio.

mena In terms of premiums, the United Arab Emirates ranked first, followed by Morocco and Turkey.

Just like non-life insurance, life premiums declined in Turkey (-30.9%), Iran (-24.6%) and Algeria (-17.1%) in 2018 against an increase of 10.8% in 2017 for the latter country.

For their part, Morocco, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates recorded increases of 18.4% (+11%) and (+6.9%) respectively.

MENA: Evolution of life insurance premiums between 2017 and 2018

In millions USD

Global ranking		Country	Premiums		2017/2018 evolution	2018 total premiums	2018 life market share
2018	2017	Country	2018	2017	2017/2018 evolution	2018 total premiums	2018 life market share
40	38	United Arab Emirates	2 854	2 656	7.45%	12 461	22.90%
44	51	Morocco	2 147	1 752	22.55%	4 579	46.89%
51	45	Turkey	1 417	1 855	-23.61%	10 452	13.56%
53	52	Iran	1 010	1 258	-19.71%	7 688	13.14%
58	56	Egypt	677	687	-1.46%	1 579	42.88%
62	63	Lebanon	524	498	5.22%	1 603	32.69%
71	70	Saudi Arabia	306	304	0.66%	9 463	3.23%
80	79	Tunisia	186	183	1.64%	870	21.38%
81	81	Kuwait	163	145	12.41%	1 307	12.47%
82	80	Oman	156	146	6.85%	1 116	13.98%
84	82	Bahrain	142	139	2.16%	724	19.61%
85	85	Jordan	120	112	7.14%	895	13.41%
86	83	Algeria	105	123	-14.63%	1 189	8.83%
88		Qatar	-	-	-	3 038	-
Total MENA			9 807	9 858	-0.52%	56 964	17.22%
Total World			2 820 175	2 724 017	3.53%	5 193 225	54.30%

Read also | MENA: The non-life insurance market in 2018 [4]