Insurance industry mostly unaffected by inflation’s rise

THE INSURANCE industry is unfazed by high inflation in the second quarter, the Insurance Commission (IC) said, as it hopes to sustain double-digit growth figures.

“Seems very good. Although the submission for the second quarter is June 30, that will probably take us one month to consolidate the figures, but I’ve been asking around if they are affected by inflation, at apparently

hindi (and apparently they’re not),” IC Commissioner Dennis B. Funa told reporters on Tuesday. “Wala naman

kaming nakikitang (We haven’t seen any) adverse impact.

He noted that some insurance products were also compulsory, hence were unaffected.

Mr. Funa said bulk of non-life insurance products came from motor vehicles.

Asked whether the industry could sustain the double-digit growth in the April-June period, he said: “Well we are hoping, but of course the first quarter was very good, wala namang (there is no) indication that second quarter will not be good.”

Inflation or the average rise in prices of widely used goods stood at 5.2% in June, bringing the first-semester average to 4.3%.

In the first quarter, IC reported the industry overall collected P76.64 billion in premiums, a 34.38% increase from the P57.04 billion posted in the same period a year ago.