The Place of Insurance in the Economies of Bulgaria and Romania in the Post-Crisis Period

The latest global financial and economic crisis has affected the insurance markets both in Bulgaria and Romania. In the period 2009-2012, the Bulgarian insurance market recorded a continuous decline. After 2012, however, the trend turned and the insurance companies working on the Bulgarian insurance market started to report growth in the realized premium income. To a certain extent, this is also applied to the Romanian insurance market. This study evaluates the place which insurance takes in the economies of Bulgaria and Romania in the post-crisis period (2012-2016). Special attention is paid to the main indicator, which characterize the development of the insurance markets, i.e. the premium income earned by insurance companies. The dynamics of two other indicators – insurance penetration and insurance density – have also been examined. The analyses and conclusions of the study are based on statistical information published in the Sigma Newsletter of the Swiss Re Institute for the period 2013-2017. This is the reason why insurers’ premium income and insurance density indicator are presented in US dollars. This permits a correct comparison of the results obtained for Bulgaria and Romania with those showing the development of insurance in countries such as Russia and Turkey, which are also part of the European insurance market. The survey indicated that Bulgarian and Romanian insurance markets could still be identified as underdeveloped. The lag compared to the average European level is significant. This is especially true for Life insurance, which unlike our two countries, is the leading insurance industry for the economically leading European countries.