NU Online News Service, July 27, 3:45 p.m. EDT

Property and casualty insurance companies may be forced to raise prices soon as increased harvesting of reserve redundancies is expected to leave a limited cushion for 2009, according to a recent Moody's report.

The report, "U.S. P&C Insurers Reap large Reserve Redundancy," stated: "The U.S. p&c industry has largely harvested reserve redundancies embedded in the balance sheet at year-end 2007 through earnings in 2008, thus leaving limited cushion for 2009. Moreover, pricing has continued to decline over the last several years, causing accident year loss ratios to migrate higher."

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