In the Asia-Pacific region, natural disasters in the first six months of this year resulted in overall losses of approximately $7bn, of which roughly $3bn was insured, says Munich Re.
In a report on natural disaster figures for the first half of 2023, Munich Re said that in New Zealand, high losses were caused by flooding following heavy rainfall, as well as cyclone Gabrielle making landfall. Assets worth some $4.3bn were destroyed, of which around $2.9bn was insured.
Large areas of China and Southeast Asia suffered recurrent heat waves between March and June, breaking many local and seasonal records. Tianjin, a city with over 10m inhabitants, measured a record high of 41.4ºC.
For Asia as a whole, the months of February to June were the fourth warmest on record, as was June alone.
Globally, insurers bore around 35% of worldwide losses in terms of the average half-year losses in the period 2013–2022.
The first half of 2023 was a continuation of the recent run of years with high losses. While the overall losses of $110bn were lower than those in the first half of 2022 ($120bn), they were still well above the average for the last 10 years ($98bn, inflation-adjusted). The same is true for the insured losses of $43bn (previous year: $47bn; 10-year average for half-year losses: $34bn).
Less than 40% of overall losses in the first half of the year were insured – evidence of the large insurance gap that persists in many countries for multiple natural hazards. A