If you're a commercial-lines insurer writing auto or cat-exposed property coverage in Indonesia or Germany, you're probably getting double-digit rate increases. Insurers involved in other lines or other countries are likely operating in an environment of rate decreases to single-digit increases, with a lot of flat in between, according to a Marsh quarterly briefing.

“Overall pricing in global insurance markets in [Q2 2014] declined for the fifth consecutive quarter, as measured by the Marsh Risk Management Global Insurance Index,” Marsh says in its July “Global Insurance Market Quarterly Briefing.” Marsh cites strong capacity, particularly in property lines, and an absence of significant losses in Q2 as the primary reasons for the pricing decline.

Marsh says its quarterly pricing index fell below 100 (to 99.5) for the first time since the broker launched the index in 2012. Rates in the U.S. and UK, though, continued to see modest increases. Marsh's index is comprised of client renewal data on property, casualty, and financial and professional lines of business, weighted by premium placed, taken from 20 large economies across all continents.