FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Summer floods and hailstorms will cost the German insurance industry almost 7 billion euros ($9.7 billion) for 2013, the biggest bill for damages the industry has faced in more than a decade, an industry report showed on Thursday.
German insurance trade body GDV said it expects weather-related catastrophes to intensify in the coming decades, with flood frequency doubling and storm-related damages increasing by half by 2100.
“The accumulation of extreme weather of different types within a few months turned 2013 into an extraordinary year,” said GDV head Alexander Erdland in a media release.
Hailstorms alone cost the German insurance industry 3.1 billion euros in 2013, GDV said. The June floods cost 1.8 billion euros.
On an inflation-adjusted basis, the 2013 damages are the highest in Germany since 2002, the association said.
GDV represents 464 insurers, including Allianz, Munich Re and Talanx.
($1 = 0.7257 euros) (Reporting by Thomas Atkins; Editing by David Goodman)
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