Munich Re estimates global insured disaster losses at $62bn for H1 2024

Reinsurance giant Munich Re has estimated that global insured natural disaster losses from the first-half of 2024 reached US $62 billion, which is slightly up on the previous year.

Munich Re explained that the total is significantly higher than the ten-year average of US $37 billion and the 30-year average of US $24 billion.

Just over half of the natural disaster losses were covered by insurance in the first-half, as Munich Re estimates that the economic cost was US $120 billion.

The reinsurance company noted that non-peak, or secondary, perils were the main driver of losses in the first-half.

In fact, some 68% of total economic losses and 76% of insured losses were caused by these non-peak weather and natural disaster perils.

For the reinsurance market and ILS capital providers that have reset their contract protection terms higher and with less aggregate exposure to smaller events, this is being reflected in some of the profitable results and returns seen for the first-half of the this year.

Thomas Blunck, a Member of the Board of Management at Munich Re said, “Weather-related natural disasters, especially in North America, are prominent once again in the loss statistics for the first half-year. In addition, there has been flooding in regions where it is extremely rare, such as Dubai.

“It is considered highly likely that climate change plays a part in this trend. Climate change entails evolving risks that everyone – society, the economy, and the insurance sector alike – will have to adapt to, so as to mitigate the growing losses from weather-related events.”

Severe thunderstorm losses in the United States are again a key contributor to the first-half disaster toll, with US $45bn in economic losses and over US $34bn of this insured (down slightly from US $40bn insured SCS losses for H1 2023).

The most costly insured natural disaster event was a tornado and hail outbreak in the US between March 12th and 16th, which Munich Re estimates drove $4.5 billion of insured losses.

In fact, the top-four most costly insured loss events were US severe convective storm outbreaks, together accounting for more than $11.6 billion of the total.

The fifth most costly insured loss is estimated to be the Dubai and UAE flooding event in April, at $2.8 billion of industry losses, according to Munich Re.

For comparison, Aon recently estimated over $58 billion of insured catastrophe losses around the globe in H1 2024, while fellow broker Gallagher Re estimated the total would be at least $61 billion.