Natural cat losses lowest since 2009: Munich Re

Losses from natural catastrophes hit their lowest point in 2015 of any year since 2009, according to Munich Re.

The reinsurer said that while the climate phenomenon El Niño brought major floods and heatwaves to many developing and emerging countries, it also reduced hurricane activity in the North Atlantic.

The deadliest catastrophe, and also the costliest in terms of overall losses, was the Nepal earthquake in April, where some 9,000 people lost their lives and overall losses totalled $ 4.8 billion.

Overall losses totalled $90 billion (previous year $110 billion), of which roughly $27 billion ($31 billion) was insured.

The natural catastrophes of the past year claimed 23,000 lives, substantially more than the previous year's figure of 7,700. However, the number of victims was still some way below the annual average for the last 30 years (54,000).

For the first time, more than a thousand loss events were recorded in a single year. However, this is primarily due to improved communication of such events, said Munich Re. In particularly benign years, a lot of minor events are recorded

“In terms of financial losses, we were somewhat fortunate in 2015: Strong tropical cyclones frequently only hit sparsely populated areas or did not make landfall at all,” said Peter Höppe, head of Munich Re's geo risks research unit.

“In the North Atlantic, El Niño helped to curtail the development of heavy storms. Measures to reduce loss susceptibility have also had a positive effect.

However Höppe said that the comparatively low losses are no reason to become complacent, adding: “Scientists believe that in the coming year the strong El Niño phase might be followed by its twin sister, La Niña. Both versions of the climate oscillation El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the Pacific influence weather extremes throughout the world.

“A La Niña phase would promote the development of hurricanes in the North Atlantic, for example.”