SYDNEY — QBE Insurance Group Ltd. expects the full-year cost of catastrophe claims to exceed annual allowance by about $100 million after heavy rain again inundated parts of Australia’s eastern states.
The Australia-listed insurer, which reports in U.S. dollars, on Monday said that the net cost of catastrophe claims for the nine months through September was tracking at about $880 million. It now assumes full-year net catastrophe costs of about $1.06 billion, compared with a $962 million allowance for the 2022 fiscal year.
The total includes an unchanged $75 million charge for exposure to the conflict in Ukraine.
QBE said that gross written premium for the three months through September was up 6% on-year, or 13% in constant-currency terms. It said it continued to expect gross written premium to grow by about 10% in constant-currency terms over the whole of 2022.
The group said it had achieved rate increases at inflation or above in most classes and anticipated that the favorable rate environment would persist into 2023.