Research and Markets: Bulgaria Insurance Report Q4 2008 Provides Independent Forecasts and Competitive Intelligence on Bulgaria's Insurance Industry

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/b3779e/bulgaria_insurance) has announced the addition of the "Bulgaria Insurance Report Q4 2008" report to their offering.

The Bulgaria Insurance Report has been written at a time that the global financial crisis, which arose as a result of the evaporation of inter-bank liquidity, appeared to be moving towards a resolution. The governments of the UK, the US and most of the larger countries in the euro area have all announced plans to make funds available, in one form or another, to their respective commercial banking sectors. As yet, it is too early to identify the impact of the crisis on individual emerging markets. However, in a later section of the report, we include a lengthy essay that attempts to identify the key issues, and describes key changes to our analysis of the sector. In essence, commercial banks and insurers in the emerging markets (and, indeed, the developed countries) of the Asia-Pacific region appear to be well placed to deal with the crisis. The same is broadly true of commercial banks and insurers in the various countries of the Middle East and North Africa. In Latin America, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia appear better placed than Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. In Africa, South Africa's situation appears to have much in common with that of Brazil, however by contrast, Nigeria faces some of the same challenges as those that confront Venezuela. At the more negative end of the spectrum, banks and insurers in most countries in Central and Eastern Europe are in far from robust positions. It has not been practicable for us to collate the latest figures for assets and premium income this quarter.

The global financial situation has been changing so rapidly that most figures would have become out of date. Regardless of this, we expect that in coming months it will become obvious that credit growth is slowing dramatically in the countries included in BMI's commercial banking sector profiles. We will end the figures, and indeed our forecasts, accordingly. Nevertheless we believe figures compiled last quarter provide insights as to how the various insurance sectors will fare in the current, extremely uncertain environment. We have therefore left them, and comments in the Key Issues section of the report essentially unchanged. The global financial crisis is likely to affect the various segments of the global insurance industry in different ways. In many countries, especially in Europe, the coming recession points to softness in the non-life segment. In many cases, numbers of policies may fall and there should be downwards pressure on premiums. By contrast, the main problem for the life segment in almost every country is the extreme volatility of financial markets. Over the longer-term however, the fortunes of life insurance will likely recover thanks to the secular growth of organised savings in most countries. China - where the larger insurance companies continue to achieve double digit growth in premium income - is a good example of this. Some particular niches should also do well in the current environment, such as legal liability insurance.

Key Topics Covered:

• The Sector At A Glance
• Table: Overview Of Bulgaria's Insurance Sector
• Key Insights On Bulgaria's Insurance Sector
• SWOT Analysis
• Bulgaria Industry SWOT
• Development Of BMI's Insurance Reports
• Comment - The Global Financial Crisis
• Table: Selected European Countries: Projected Budget And Current Account, 2008 (as % of GDP)
• Projections And Forecasts .
• Table: Premiums - Historical Data And Forecasts 2005-2012
• Projections And Drivers Of Growth
• Table: Growth Drivers, 2005-2012
• Country Update
• Macroeconomic Outlook
• Table: Bulgaria - Macroeconomic Activity 2005-2012
• Political Outlook
• Table: Bulgaria - Insurance Business Environment Indicators
• Table: Central And Eastern Europe Insurance Business Environment Rankings
• Regional Context

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/b3779e/bulgaria_insurance