Azernews.Az

The volume of insurance premium per capita will exceed 40 manat in Azerbaijan by late 2013, head of the State Insurance Supervision Service under the Finance Ministry Namig Khalilov said during the discussion of changes to the insurance legislation at the Parliamentary Economic Policy Committee.

Prior to the law 'On mandatory types of insurance', the average insurance sum amounted to 16-17 manat. This figure increased to 37 manat by late 2012, he said.

According to Khalilov, Azerbaijan's insurance market developed dynamically in recent years. If the market increased by 60 per cent in 2012, its growth was at the level of 16-17 per cent in the first nine months of 2013.

"The influence on the market's development is not confined to the activity of mandatory types of insurance. They give impetus to the development of voluntary insurance. Thanks to the activity of mandatory types, people are more frequently faced with insurance and use the services of insurance companies more ultimately resulting in a change in their attitude towards insurance," Khalilov said.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Economic Policy Committee Ziyad Samadzadeh, in turn, said the insurance is one of the fastest growing sectors of Azerbaijan's economy.

"Market participants plan to collect premiums to the volume of one billion manat in coming years which means an increase of the insurance sector's specific weight in the GDP going from 0.1 to one per cent of the GDP. There will be significant progress in this sphere," he said.