Annual catastrophe losses on track to top $100B again
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Insured natural catastrophe losses totaled $93 billion through the third quarter of this year, according to a report Wednesday from Gallagher Re, the reinsurance brokerage business of Arthur J Gallagher & Co.
The total, which includes claims covered by private and publicly owned insurers, puts 2023 on track to be the sixth year since 2017 in which annual losses exceed $100 billion. Total economic losses from January through September were estimated at $290 billion, the report said.
The United States accounted for 74% of global insured losses so far in 2023, including 23 of 29 billion-dollar insured loss events, the report said. Severe convective storms accounted for 65% of all losses, or $60.45 billion, and $54 billion of those losses occurred in the U.S., according to the report.
The costliest insured natural catastrophe was the sequence of earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria in February, causing at least $5.8 billion in insured losses. The next three costliest events were caused by U.S. severe convective storm outbreaks, according to the report.
“Emerging research is beginning to coalesce around the reality of more environmentally conducive days for large severe convective storm outbreaks,” according to a Gallagher Re statement issued with the report.
Steve Bowen, the reinsurance brokerage’s Chicago-based chief science officer, said in an interview that 2023 will likely surpass $100 billion in insured losses without a major U.S. hurricane loss or other single dominant event.
“It’s going to be driven almost exclusively by secondary perils,” he said.
