The overall losses of $33 billion were roughly half those of the previous year and of the price-adjusted average for the last 30 years ($65 billion (USD) and $68.3 billion (USD), respectively). The overall losses of $33 billion were roughly half those of the previous year and of the price-adjusted average for the last 30 years ($65 billion (USD) and $68.3 billion (USD), respectively). (Photo: Shutterstock)

Across the world, natural disasters in the first half of 2018 caused significantly lower losses than usual, according to Munich Re. Provisional figures estimate overall losses were around $33 billion (USD), the lowest level since 2005.

However, individual events did cause high losses, and it's the second half of the year that usually brings higher losses. For example, in 2017 the series of major hurricanes, Harvey, Irma and Maria, pushed overall losses for the year to $340 billion (USD).

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Denny Jacob

Denny Jacob is an associate editor for NU PropertyCasualty360. Contact him at [email protected].

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