Euro area insurance corporation statistics: first quarter of 2019

Europe
  • 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.

https://www.ecb.europa.eu

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