Is the world more resilient?

The major economies are now less well-equipped to rebound from unexpected shocks than they were before the crisis, given lower trend growth, higher debt burdens, weaker financial market structure and a move to less openness.

To this end, we encourage policy makers to focus on increasing competitiveness on a national level and cooperation at the global level. We propose the following for the purpose of improving global resilience … our "Wish list".

With respect to the contribution of insurance to resilience, large protection gaps across mortality and property lines of business indicate a still-elevated vulnerability to adverse events for many households and businesses globally. This sigma newly estimates a global USD-500-billion combined mortality and protection gap in premium equivalent terms.

By working to further narrow protection gaps, and by being able to expand their market risk absorbing capacity and long-term investment activities, insurers will continue to play a main role in strengthening system resilience. Based on latest figures from different sources, we estimate that the global re/insurance sector has total assets under management of about USD 30 trillion – roughly three times the size of China's economy. The large asset base of the re/insurance industry should be fully mobilized as risk absorber.

Read more in the full report.