Opciones de búsqueda
Home Medios El BCE explicado Estudios y publicaciones Estadísticas Política monetaria El euro Pagos y mercados Empleo
Sugerencias
Ordenar por
No disponible en español
  • 3 June 2019
  • Press release

Euro area insurance corporation statistics: first quarter of 2019

  • Total assets of euro area insurance corporations amounted to €8,246 billion in the first quarter of 2019, €362 billion higher than in fourth quarter of 2018
  • Total insurance technical reserves of euro area insurance corporations rose to €6,243 billion in first quarter, up €293 billion from fourth quarter

Total assets of euro area insurance corporations increased to €8,246 billion in the first quarter of 2019, from €7,884 billion in the fourth quarter. Debt securities accounted for 41.4% of the sector's total assets in the first quarter. The second largest category of holdings was investment fund shares (26.0%), followed by equity (10.7%) and loans (7.0%).

Holdings of debt securities increased to €3,414 billion at the end of the first quarter from €3,307 billion at the end of the previous quarter. Net purchases of debt securities amounted to €30 billion in the first quarter; price and other changes amounted to €76 billion. The year-on-year growth rate of debt securities held was 2.7%.

Looking at holdings by issuing sector, the annual growth rate of debt securities issued by euro area general government was 2.1% in the first quarter of 2019, with net purchases in the quarter amounting to €8 billion. As regards debt securities issued by the private sector, the annual growth rate was 3.7%, and quarterly net purchases amounted to €16 billion. For debt securities issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 2.2%, with quarterly net purchases of €6 billion.

Chart 1

Insurance corporations' holdings of debt securities by issuing sector

(quarterly transactions in EUR billions; not seasonally adjusted)

Data for insurance corporations' holdings of debt securities by issuing sector

Turning to insurance corporations' holdings of investment fund shares, these increased to €2,140 billion in the first quarter of 2019, from €2,029 billion in the previous quarter, with net purchases of €22 billion and price and other changes of €89 billion. The year-on-year growth rate in the first quarter was 2.6%.

The annual growth rate of euro area money market fund shares held by insurance corporations was 12.0% in the first quarter of 2019, with net purchases in the quarter amounting to €20 billion. As regards holdings of euro area non-money market fund shares, the annual growth rate was 3.6%, with quarterly net purchases amounting to €13 billion. For investment fund shares issued by non-euro area residents, the annual growth rate was -15.4%, with quarterly net sales of €11 billion.

Chart 2

Insurance corporations' holdings of investment fund shares by issuing sector

(quarterly transactions in EUR billions; not seasonally adjusted)

Data for insurance corporations' holdings of investment fund shares by issuing sector

In terms of main liabilities, total insurance technical reserves of insurance corporations amounted to €6,243 billion in the first quarter of 2019, up from €5,950 billion in the fourth quarter. Life insurance technical reserves accounted for 90.6% of total insurance technical reserves in the first quarter. Unit-linked products amounted to €1,190 billion, accounting for 21.0% of total life insurance technical reserves.

Annex

Table: Annex to the table on euro area insurance corporations


For media queries, please contact
Stefan Ruhkamp, tel.: +49 69 1344 5057.

Notes:

  • "Other assets" includes currency and deposits, insurance technical reserves and related claims, financial derivatives, non-financial assets and remaining assets.
  • "Private sector" refers to euro area excluding general government.
  • "Investment funds" includes money market funds and non-money market funds.
  • Hyperlinks in the main body of the press release and in the annex table lead to data that may change with subsequent releases as a result of revisions. Figures shown in the annex table are a snapshot of the data as at the time of the current release.
CONTACTO

Banco Central Europeo

Dirección General de Comunicación

Se permite la reproducción, siempre que se cite la fuente.

Contactos de prensa