Losses from last August’s Italian earthquake rise to €108m: PERILS

Property insurance loss estimates from last August’s earthquake in central Italy have risen to €108m, according to PERILS. The Zurich-based catastrophe data company said the estimate replaces its last figure of €66m, published in November last year.

On publishing its final loss report, PERILS said economic loss from the quake is estimated by the Italian Civil Protection Agency at €7.1bn. PERILS’s trigger for European catastrophes is normally set at €200m, but the firm included the central Italian earthquake because of its socio-economic impact and the fact it highlighted the different levels of insurance coverage throughout Italy.

PERILS said the loss figures, collected from data held by insurance companies, reveal that only 1.5% of economic losses were protected by insurance. This compares against 9.3% of economic losses covered by insurance in the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquakes. “The difference in these figures reflects the significant variation in earthquake insurance penetration levels across Italy,” PERILS said.

A series of earthquakes struck a similar region in central Italy in October last year and PERILS said it will publish final loss figures for these events in October.