Estimates for insured losses stemming from the record breaking flooding being experienced across much of Thailand jumped significantly yesterday as reinsurance broker JLT Re suggested that they could reach as much as $13 billion (according to some reports). This followed an update from the Insurance Commissioners Office in Thailand who only put the figure at $4.95 billion.
Japanese insurers seem destined to take the bulk of whatever the final flooding insured loss turns out to be as they have the highest activity in the underwater industrial areas around Bangkok where the flooding is thought to have caused the most costly damaged. It’s suggested that they may insure as much as 80% of these affected areas.
Economic recovery from the flooding could cost as much as $30 billion according to JLT Re and it will be some time before insured loss estimates can be quoted with certainty as many of the most affected areas remain unreachable.
The Japanese insurers who end up taking the hit from this flooding will have experienced heavy losses earlier this year from the Tohoku earthquake. It’s hard to say how much of this loss will come back to the world’s major reinsurers and thus retro players, but it’s safe to assume that a large amount of the final insured loss figure from these Thai floods will hit the global reinsurance market.
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