MILLIRE_2019_Annual Report

Milli Re Annual Report 2019 55 Activities and Major Developments Related to Activities Financial Status Risks and Assessment of the Governing Body Unconsolidated Financial Statements Together with Independent Auditors’ Report Thereon Consolidated Financial Statements Together with Independent Auditors’ Report Thereon General Information Financial Rights Provided to the Members of the Governing Body and Senior Executives Research & Development Activities On the other hand, a series of severe convective storms that affected the Mid, Mid-West and South-East parts of the country brought torrential rainfalls, hails and heavy flooding during the months of March and May and were recorded as the costliest events of the year for the US. In total, these events accounted for USD 48 billion economic and USD 24 billion insured losses. Although California state suffered from damaging fire events in 2017 and 2018, 2019 wildfire season passed relatively quiet in the region. Whilst the destructive Camp, Woolsey and Carr Fires cost a total loss of USD 23 billion in 2018, this year the heavy rains recorded during the winter period helped mitigating the summer drought conditions and limited the total economic burden of the California wildfires, which started in May and continued on and off until the end of 2019, to only USD 1 billion, with insured losses approaching USD 800 million. Despite 2019 wildfire season being less severe in the US, however as a result of the record-breaking high temperatures and extreme dryness, Australia witnessed a series of mega bushfires starting in September and took the lead as the country which struggled the most with the devastating wildfire events this year. Mainly affecting Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, Southern Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales states of the country, the massive fires spread across the country and ravaged more than 10.3 million hectares of land. As of January 2020, it is known that the total disaster recovery payments by Australian Government reached USD 2 billion. In contrast to other parts of the globe, in Europe adverse weather conditions prevailed during the first half of the year. Winterstorm Eberhard which affected Western and Central Europe; mainly Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom and France, on March 10 th and 11 th , was marked as one of the costliest losses occurred in the first six months of the year for the insurance industry. The total cost of Eberhard to the economy is anticipated to exceed USD 2 billion, while the majority, around USD 1.3 billion, of this amount is expected to be absorbed by the insurance industry. In the second half of the year, Europe’s Mediterranean coast, especially Italy, France and Spain were hit by destructive flood disasters, which had devastating impacts around the globe this year. From September 11 th to 15 th , Valencia, Murcia and Andalusia regions of Spain were battered by last 100 years’ heaviest rainfalls on record. The total economic losses from the disaster is estimated to be USD 2.4 billion, however only USD 300 million is expected to be recoverable from insurance industry. In 2019 Asia witnessed unprecedented natural disasters. Tropical Cyclone Fani, which hit India’s Odisha state between May 3 rd and 5 th and quickly reached Category 4 intensity with maximum sustained windspeed of 200 km/h, was recorded as the first major catastrophe affecting the region this year. Even though the disaster mainly struck the towns of Puri and Bhubaneswar, it caused extensive damages to infrastructure and housing across the whole state. The total economic loss is estimated to exceed USD 8.1 billion, whereas the insured losses are expected to be muted as a consequence of the low insurance density in the country. Soon after the hurricane, in June, the prolonged monsoon rains led to massive floodings which took control of the northern parts of the country. While tens of thousands of people were left homeless, the total number of fatalities arising from the incidences during the monsoon season reached 1,850. The total economic burden of the floods is estimated to be USD 10 billion.

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