Munich Re has warned that this part of the world is experiencing a growing number of violent storms.
The insurance industry is recognizing a changing weather trend in East Asia, where the number of typhoons and other highly destructive, violent storms are becoming an increasingly common occurrence.
The insured losses over the last thirty years in that region have passed the $6 billion mark.
These costs to the insurance industry have come primarily from floods and typhoons. However, over recent years, it has become clear that this is likely to worsen and it will likely do so very quickly. It is already happening. Munich Re has already recorded an increase by four times in the number of weather related events generating losses in that part of the world.
The insurance industry, until now, has faced only a small fraction of the losses, at less than 10 percent of the total.
The total losses – including those faced by the insurance industry – are estimated to have reached $700 billion during the last thirty years. Clearly, the $6 billion that was insured does not represent very much. Of that insured total, 62 percent is linked to Japan. Among the overall losses in Eastern Asia, 56 percent are from flooding, but only 30 percent of that is insured.
Over the decades to come, the insurance industry is now predicting that the number of floods will only rise to the point that they will be greater and more frequent than they have been in previous years. The 2011 Thailand floods brought about insured losses of $16 billion, which represented the largest ever insured loss in the region that was linked to weather.
Following floods, the next most costly weather related events are typhoons. According to a new insurance industry analysis by Munich Re, the typhoon activity cycle is now showing higher levels over the years to come. This data analyzed data since 1980, providing 33 years of data and weather trends. This analysis was published within the Severe Weather in Eastern Asia publication from Munich Re, concentrating on the Philippines, Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and Indonesia.
