SwissRe has released its study “sigma 1/2018: Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2017: a year of record-breaking losses”. The study revealed that global insured losses in 2017 for disaster events totaled USD144 billion, with the total economic losses from disaster events at USD337 billion. Global insured losses were said to be the highest on sigma records, and almost double the previous year.

Sigma reported there were 301 catastrophes last year, with 183 natural disasters and 118 man-made disasters in 2017. Losses from the catastrophes were well above the 10 year average. In the Oceania/Australia region, there were 5 events with Insured losses of USD2.1 billion and USD3.3 billion in total economic losses. Cyclone Debbie was the biggest disaster in the region, with damage from water ingress forming a significant portion of the overall losses.

Insurers should be alive to risks that ongoing urbanisation, exposure of costal territories and the effects of climate change will impact catastrophic losses moving forward.

The study can be accessed here.