S. Korean insurance sector grows 4.6 pct in 2016

SEOUL, Dec. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's insurance industry grew 4.6 percent in 2017, driven by a rise in life and non-life insurance premiums, a research institute said Sunday.

According to the Korea Insurance Development Corp., local insurance companies received 327 trillion won (US$306 billion) in premiums last year, compared with 313 trillion won collected in 2015.

The figures include insurance premiums paid to the National Pension Service, the Korea Trade Insurance Corp. and five other state-run insurance agencies.

By sector, life and non-life insurance companies collected 204.3 trillion won in premiums last year, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier, while the seven state-run insurance institutions saw their combined premiums collection rise 6.4 percent on-year to reach 123.3 trillion won.

In terms of premiums collected, South Korea's private insurance market was valued at $170.9 billion last year, the seventh largest around the globe, with its portion of the global insurance market being 3.61 percent, it said.

sam@yna.co.kr
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