Health and motor insurance will drive the growth.
The Indian general insurance industry is likely to grow by around 20 per cent per annum in the coming years as the industry players have observed the demand for health and motor insurance increasing over last four years.
“Currently health insurance is growing at an average rate of 25 percent and motor insurance is growing at 30 percent per annum. These are the two key segments that will help us report growth,” said Krishnamoorthy Rao, MD and CEO, Future Generali.
Tapan Singhel, MD and CEO, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance also echoed the same sentiments. He feels that in next eight years health insurance industry will outpace motor insurance in terms of growth. He added that with the growing awareness among people about health insurance benefits will play a key role in the growth of health insurance industry. He added that even rural market is contributing handsomely to the growth.
The public sector general insurance players too are optimistic. A senior official of New India Assurance said, “Despite slowdown in economy, the general insurance industry has grown by around 20 per cent in the recent past. We hope the industry will see similar growth in the coming years.”
Currently, motor insurance accounts for about 43 per cent of the general insurance pie and health insurance accounts for 30 per cent.
According to industry officials, they need to increase their penetration for higher growth. The penetration of the general insurance in India stands at around 0.7 per cent, lower than the global average of 1.5 to 4 per cent. Recently, the finance ministry had asked the industry to come up with proposals for increasing the penetration, shared the industry officials.