Commercial insurance prices remained flat overall for the eighth consecutive quarter, according to the latest Towers Watson & Co. survey released Thursday.

In its latest quarterly “Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey,” the consulting firm said that not only did prices remain flat, accident-year loss ratios also deteriorated from the same period a year ago.

In aggregate, commercial insurance prices declined by 1% during the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the survey, which compares prices charged on policies underwritten during the fourth quarter 2010 with prices charged for the same coverage during the same quarter in 2009.

CLIPS also found that 2010 accident-loss ratios increased 5% from the same period in 2009. This deterioration is higher than the estimated deterioration of 2% for accident year 2009 over 2008, New York-based Towers Watson said in a statement.

“The slightly negative 2009 claim-cost inflation indicated in our survey is the lowest we've observed in the history of the survey,” said Bruce Fell, director of Towers Watson's property/casualty practice in the Americas, in a statement. “The recession appears to have had a very significant dampening effect on losses during 2009, which likely reduced pricing pressures in calendar 2010.

“Our survey results for 2010 support the contention that the economic recovery will be accompanied by higher cost trends, and those estimates could increase if additional ‘catch-up' from 2009 negative trends—beyond a return to long-term averages—would occur with rebounding economic conditions.”

Meanwhile, while pricing for the majority of lines remained flat, commercial property, professional liability, directors and officers liability, and employment practices liability lines showed price reductions for the fifth consecutive year quarter, the survey said.

Aggregate price change indications showed some differentiation by account size, Towers Watson said in the statement, with flat indications for small and mid-market accounts, and price reductions in large accounts and specialty lines.