THE escalation of insurance costs is not because of Tropical Cyclone Winston in Fiji, says Marsh Pte Ltd Branch manager Wayne Wong.
He said it was linked to other events happening around the world.
“We had a cyclone in Texas and earthquakes, we have multiple tsunamis happening in Asia and which have chewed up the reserves out of Europe,” he said.
“Europe has a pie and when global events take away from that pie, that pie shrinks obviously so it becomes a supply and demand situation.
“In the Pacific, because of our situation in the ring of fire with other Pacific Islands, we are prone to earthquakes and cyclones.
“If it doesn’t hit us this year it will definitely hit us in the coming year,” he said.
“The pie for the Pacific, because of this global catastrophe, is shrinking.”
Mr Wong said in terms promoting insurance to the wider population in Fiji, the only way that brokers could really help out was through reasonable costs for insurance to make it attractive for their clients to continue borrowing insurance.
He said 2018 was a successful year for the industry.
Mr Wong reiterated that Fiji needed insurance and could not survive without it.
He added that insurance had to be maintained at a reasonable level.
