Report on all CIMA insurance markets – 2007 financial year A – INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT After strong growth that has spread relatively evenly across regions over the past three years, the global economy experienced a slowdown in 2007. Indeed, after recording a sustained pace until the end of the third quarter of 2007, the expansion of the world economy has given signs of moderation in the face of the persistence of the financial turbulence stemming from the “subprime” sector in the United States. United and impairments of bank assets as well as the massive load shedding on the world stock exchanges which result from this. This turmoil in the financial market, accompanied by soaring oil prices and higher agricultural raw materials, has clouded global economic development. Sub-Saharan Africa experienced a sustained growth rate in 2007, posting the highest growth rate in decades. It stood at 6.8% in 2007 compared to 6.4% in 2006 thanks to the increase in oil production, the increase in domestic investment and improved productivity. At the same time, strong global demand for commodities, increased capital flows to Africa and debt relief have helped boost growth in the sub-Saharan economy. As for the African countries members of the Franc Zone, they recorded a slight increase in their growth rate amounting to 3.5% in 2007, after 3.1% in 2006. This increase results from the stabilization of the rhythm GDP growth in Africa of the West and its slight recovery in Central Africa. The countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) thus saw their growth rate drop from 3.1% in 2006 to 4.0% in 2007 while that of the Western Economic and Monetary Union- Africa stabilized at 3.0% in 2007 against 3.1 % in 2006. As in 2006, the Franc Zone recorded, for each of its two main subsets, economic growth lower than that of sub-Saharan Africa. With particular regard to the insurance sector, 2007 was marked by $ 4.061 billion in premiums earned worldwide compared to $ 3.931 billion in 2006, an increase of 3.3%. This growth is mainly linked to the development of life insurance in emerging markets. Life insurance premiums increased 5.4% to $ 2.393 billion, which is above the average of the past ten (10) years. In emerging markets, they rose 13.1% to $ 219 billion. Economic growth, a relatively young population and a growing middle class have been the driving forces behind life insurance sales in emerging markets. Sales of pension and wealth management products have spurred growth in industrial countries. In the non-life sector, global premium growth slowed by 0.7% to a total of $ 1.668 billion. Premium volume fell on industrialized markets. It only slightly slowed down in emerging markets. In spite of these shocks and the most alarming forecasts, global growth rather marked a slight decline, going from 5.2% in 2006 to 4.9% in 2007, ie a drop of 0.3 point. This slight decrease is explained by the fact that the slowdown in the American economy, which went from a growth rate of 2.9% in 2006 to 2.2% in 2007, did not, however, start the dynamism from the rest of the world. Apart from the euro zone, which recorded a slight decline from 2.8% in 2006 to 2.6% in 2007, economic expansion has continued in emerging and developing countries with a growth rate of 7.7% in 2006 against 7.8% in 2007 on the one hand and in the United Kingdom with a rate of 2.9% in 2006 against 3.1 % in 2007 on the other hand. The decline in the euro zone is the consequence of the growing economy of the major European countries, namely Germany (2.9% in 2006 against 2.5% in 2007), France (2.0% in 2006 against 1.9% in 2007), Italy (1.8% in 2006 against 1.5% in 2007) and Spain (3.9% in 2006 against 3.8% in 2007). The economic expansion of emerging and developing countries is driven by the emerging economies of Asia, led by China and Africa, which have remained strong. The growth rate of the Chinese economy went from 11.1% in 2006 to 11.4% in 2007 and that of the African economy from 7.7% in 2006 to 7.8% in 2007.
