Central Bank ...

industry growth was marred by the slowdown in new vehicle insurance policies in response to weak vehicle leasing activity.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2017 (4Q17), the Ceylinco group reported Rs.4.9 billion in net profit in comparison to Rs.2.4 billion reported during the corresponding period in 2016.

The consolidated GWP rose by 12 percent year-on-year to Rs.9.28 billion while the investment and other income rose by a robust 20 percent YOY to Rs.3.5 billion.

The group investments under the ‘loans and receivables’ category rose by Rs.7.0 billion to Rs.22.2 billion and the investments under the ‘available-for-sale’ category rose by Rs.3.0 billion to Rs.13.1 billion.

Apart from those, the group has Rs.63.5 billion under ‘held-to-maturity’ investments.

The group paid net claims and benefits of Rs.3.5 billion, little changed from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, for the year ended December 31, 2017, Ceylinco reported total earnings of Rs.8.1 billion, up 74 percent from 2016.

The total GWPS rose by 9.0 percent YOY to Rs.34.7 billion for the year.

Investment and other incomes rose by a robust 23 percent YOY to Rs.12.8 billion.

The group paid net claims and benefits of Rs.14.1 billion, up 6.0 percent YOY.

Sri Lanka’s overcrowded insurance market operates with 27 insurance companies with two composite insurers, 12 life insurers and 13 non-life companies.

Since the insurance industry players were forced to segregate their life businesses from non-life businesses in 2015, the industry has seen some consolidation, particularly in the non-life sector, with mergers and acquisitions taking place during the last couple of years.

With regard to the external sector, the official reserves are currently estimated at around US $ 7.9 billion, compared to US $ 6.0 billion at end-2016.

The improvement in reserves is recorded on both quantitative and qualitative aspects, with the Central Bank purchasing US $ 1.7 billion from the domestic market on a net basis in 2017 and US $ 284 million so far during 2018.

Although the recent global market developments and domestic uncertainties attributed to non-economic factors have generated some volatility in the domestic market in the month of February, such volatility is expected to be short-lived. In fact, the foreign exchange market has already stabilised while speculation in the government securities market has also moderated substantially,” the Central Bank said.