Non-life insurance outperforms life insurance in Zimbabwe

According to a member of the Zimbabwe Insurance Supervisory Authority (IPEC), non-life insuance is writing more premiums than the life sectror. This is the first time in the history of local insurance that property insurance overtakes the life one. Analysts say this trend reversal follows Zimbabwe's hyperinflation and the dollarization of the insurance policies.

In an attempt to address a catastrophic economic situation, the authorities have introduced a government decree imposing the exclusive use of the Zimbabwean dollar in local transactions, while almost all life insurance contracts were denominated in US dollars. As a result, life insurance assets collapsed, from 9.4 billion USD at the end of 2018 to 1.4 billion USD at September 30, 2019, a decline of 85.11% in nine months.

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