Munich Re expects stable pricing for upcoming renewals

Munich Re said Monday it expects prices for its reinsurance business clients to be “largely stable” in the upcoming renewal season, although perhaps not in Germany, which recently experienced high natural catastrophe losses.

The reinsurer said that initial estimates indicate natural catastrophe losses in Europe to for around 17 billion euros for the first nine months of the year, of which about 75% came from flood losses.

Munich Re’s own natural hazards statistics suggest that severe weather events have almost tripled worldwide since 1980, with flood events in Germany and central Europe doubling since that time, it added.

Flooding in May and June in Germany this year caused economic losses of more than 12 billion euros, according to Munich Re.

“It is urgently necessary to adapt to such events now. Studies clearly show that it makes far more economic sense for economies to invest in prevention early on and thus avoid losses,” Ludger Arnoldussen, member of Munich Re’s board of management noted in a statement.

The reinsurer also said that preventive measures such as the designation of flood plains near rivers, cross-border river management and private protection measures are crucial from a humanitarian perspective.