Insurance Sector Contracts By 16.54% In Q3

The insurance sector contracted by 16.54 per cent in the third quarter of 2020 financial period, latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics have shown.

The NBS revealed on Saturday that the sector which contracted by 28.15 per cent in the second quarter had earlier recorded 5.64 per cent growth in the first quarter of the year.

Part of the report read, “The finance and insurance sector consists of the two subsectors, financial institutions and insurance, which accounted for 88.89 per cent and 11.11 per cent of the sector in real terms in Q3 2020.

“As a whole, the sector grew at 5.91 per cent in nominal terms (year on year), with the growth rate of financial institutions at 9.60 per cent and –16.54 per cent growth rate recorded for insurance.

“The overall rate was higher than that in Q3 2019 by 2.20 per cent points, but –14.91 per cent points lower than the preceding quarter.

“Quarter on quarter, growth was -24.76 per cent.

“The sector’s contribution to the overall nominal GDP was 2.46 per cent in Q3 2020, higher than the 2.40 per cent it represented a year prior, but lower than the contribution of 3.76 per cent it made in the preceding quarter.”

In real terms, the NBS stated that growth in this sector was estimated at 3.21 per cent during Q3 2020, or 2.14 per cent points from the rate recorded in the third quarter, though down by –15.29 per cent points from the rate recorded in the preceding quarter.

Quarter on quarter growth in real terms stood at –25.24 per cent.