Iranian insurance companies paid 225 trillion rials (about $5.3 billion) for damage compensation in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 21, 2019), IRNA reported.

As reported, the figure has registered a 24.2-percent rise in comparison to the last year’s same nine-months.

Driver, treatment, third party, and vehicle insurances were the most paid categories in the mentioned time span, with payment ratios of 69.5 percent, 61 percent, 61 percent, and 52.9 percent, respectively. 

The insurance industry in Iran has been growing in recent years so that the rate of insurance penetration in Iran has increased significantly over the past two years, while the average coverage rate in the world has remained stable and even declining in some regions (including the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia).

According to official statistics, the insurance penetration rate in Iran increased from 2.3 percent in the Iranian calendar year of 1396 (March 2017-March 2018) to 2.4 percent in the last year (March 2018-March 2019) and is expected to continue this upward trend in the current year.

Based on the latest report from the Central Insurance of Iran, the insurance premium for the first nine months of this year amounted to about 430 trillion rials (about $10.2 billion), up 41.4 percent from the same period last year.

In the said time span, third-party insurance had the highest share among the various insurance categories with 33 percent, followed by treatment insurance with 25.8 percent and life insurance with 14 percent.