The Russian insurance market, first half of 2008

The first half of 2008 at the Russian insurance market featured two trends: tariff leveling and decreased rates of credit-related insurance growth. Stable and profitable business has gradually become of more importance than the market share.

In the first half of 2008 Russian insurers collected 293 bln rubles by direct insurance (without obligatory medical insurance), which is 44 bln rubles or 17.6% more than for the same period in the previous year. Contribution growth slowed down the current year - in the first half of 2007 it was 3.1 percentage points higher. The Russian insurance market has still been led by autocasco (76.4 bln rubles were collected at the first half of 2008, according to Expert RA), voluntary medical insurance (53.0 bln rubles), OSAGO (39.1 bln rubles) insurance of legal entities from fire and other risks (31.3 bln rubles).