While the Austrian insurance industry still demonstrated premium growth of 2.1% in 2008, it grew slightly more slowly in 2009 at only 1.5% to reach € 16.5 billion. The primary culprit for this decline was life insurance, which only achieved a growth of 0.7% to reach € 7.4 billion (2008: +2.2%). On the other hand, health insurance experienced continued stable growth of 3.6%, reaching € 1.6 billion.
The segments of property and casualty insurance also continued to grow, although the trend toward less dynamic growth continued. Overall, the premiums in this area grew by 1.8% to € 7.5 billion, falling just short of the previous year’s rate (2008: +1.9%). Motor vehicle insurance, however, suffered a significant setback with volume declining by 2.2% as average premiums continued to fall (2008: –1.0%). The remaining areas of property and casualty insurance exhibited overall gains of 3.3%, coming in slightly below the value of the previous year (2008: +3.8%).
