International CAT event losses totaled $16.7 billion in 2023
According to CRESTA, the largest international loss event was a sequence of earthquakes that hit Turkey in February.
There were seven catastrophe events internationally (outside of the U.S.) in 2023 that each caused losses in excess of $1 billion USD, according to the CRESTA Industry Loss Index (CLIX). In total, these events caused losses amounting to $16.7 billion. This is below the average of $17.1 billion (adjusted) caused by international CAT events over the last 23 years.
The most disastrous of these international events was the Kahramanmaras Earthquake Sequence in Turkey in February 2023, which generated an industry loss of $5.8 billion – making it the largest catastrophe loss to ever impact the Turkish insurance market.
Other international climate catastrophes with losses in excess of $1 billion include:
- North Island Floods, which affected New Zealand in January 2023
- Cyclone Gabrielle, which hit New Zealand in February 2023
- Northern Italy severe connective storms in July 2023
- Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Floods caused by Typhoon Doksuri in China from July to August 2023
- Hurricane Otis, which hit Mexico in October 2023
- European Windstorm Ciarán in November 2023
The CLIX also cites the potential for two other events to join this list once ongoing investigations are completed. This includes severe connective storms that hit Germany in June, and severe connective storms that hit Australia in December.
In a release, Matthias Saenger, manager at CRESTA CLIX, commented: “While from a global perspective, international Cat losses in 2023 were slightly below the long-term average, several countries experienced record-breaking events, namely Turkey, Italy, New Zealand and Mexico. This situation effectively illustrates the value proposition of global reinsurance: extraordinary or even record-breaking Cat losses on a national market level can represent quite “normal” loss levels in a globally diversified reinsurance portfolio. This scenario was the case in 2023 and explains why this year’s Cat losses were managed so robustly.”