Insured, uninsured loss totaled $ 278 b in 2011

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Insured, uninsured loss totaled $ 278 b in 2011

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2011 becomes the second costliest year in history for insurance losses.

09 September,2011 01:42 pm

This year will rank as the second most expensive in history for catastrophic insurance losses, with more than $70 billion (50.5 billion euros) already incurred in earthquake charges, reinsurer SwissRe said on Friday.In terms of catastrophe claims, 2011 is already the second costliest year in history for the insurance industry, SwissRe chief economist Thomas Hess said in a statement.Additional claims from the ongoing US hurricane season or expensive winter storms in Europe have the potential to bring figures for the full year even closer to the record claims of 12 billion experience in 2005, he said.In the statement, insurance giant SwissRe said that so far this year, claims for natural catastrophes reached 67 billion dollars, compared to 27 billion in 2010.The figure, it said, was exceeded only in 2005, when total catastrophe claims amounted to 120 billion dollars, with hurricane Katrina, Wilma and Rita causing claims of over 90 billion dollars.SwissRe said that total losses for insured and uninsured during the first six months of 2011 totalled 278 billion dollars, with the losses of 26,000 lives, mostly in Japan following the March tsunami and earthquake.