China Q1-Q3 insurance premium growth quickens

BEIJING, Oct 18 - Growth of China's insurance premiums quickened in the first nine months of the year as business was better than expected, the industry regulator said on Sunday.

Premiums in the first three quarters rose 8.1 percent from a year earlier to 858 billion yuan ($126 billion), the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said on its website (www.circ.gov.cn).

That was faster than the 6.4 percent rise in the first half, though still well off the sizzling 49 percent pace set in the first nine months of 2008.

"The insurance market has stabilised and its steady growth is better than expected," the CIRC said in a statement, adding that it would continue to grow well in the fourth quarter.

It also said that insurance companies were expected to have chalked up 39.2 billion yuan in profits in the first three quarters, compared with a 6.6 billion yuan loss in the same period last year when the country's sagging stock market weighed on their investments.

The industry's total assets reached 3.8 trillion yuan at the end of September, up 18.9 percent from the start of the year. ($1=6.826 Yuan)