(Bloomberg) -- Swiss Re AG, the world’s biggest reinsurer, said profit fell in the second-quarter as the company paid more for catastrophe claims including earthquakes in Japan and forest fires in Canada.

Net income declined to $637 million from $820 million a year earlier, the Zurich-based company said in a statement on Friday. That beat the $605 million average estimate of nine analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

While reinsurers had to pay more for catastrophe claims in the second quarter to the primary insurers whom they help shoulder such risks, overall insured losses during the first half of the year were in line the average over the last 10 years, according to Munich Re estimates. Low claims are damping demand and prices for reinsurance, and investment income is being squeezed by record-low interest rates.

'More pronounced natural catastrophe losses'

The second quarter “was marked by a difficult macroeconomic environment as well as more pronounced natural catastrophe losses and large reported claims in our Corporate Solutions business unit,” Christian Mumenthaler, who became chief executive officer on July 1 after Michel Lies retired, said in the statement.