Special Factors Characterize Growth in Insurance Market

In 1988 and 1989 the development of the Austrian insurance market was determined by special factors. While in 1988 premium income of private insurance companies had surged at a rate of 9.6 percent, the highest rate in seven years, in 1989 the rate of growth was below that of nominal GDP for the first time in the eighties. The most important reasons for this slowdown were marked anticipatory effects in the life insurance business before the tax reform of 1989 and a decline in premium income in the third-party car insurance business which had been opened to price competition for the first time. In September 1987 price controls were lifted for this sector: This had the expected result of boosting premiums and of widening premium differentials.