Correlation of Indicators of Development in the Insurance Market in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and the EU Average

Abstract

In 2004 the Czech and Slovak Republics became part of the European Union, which brought many changes influencing the financial markets, including the insurance industry. Czech, Slovak, and European markets are constantly evolving, and they respond to the changes in the environment in which they operate. Given these facts, the paper focuses on analysing the interdependence of the insurance market in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, and the EU insurance market (the EU average) and on identifying the conditions of this dependence. The successfully functioning financial sector has a significant positive impact on economic growth; for this reason, the paper will pay attention to the issue of how insurance influences economic growth. To capture the insurance market, many insurance indicators can be used, among which are, in particular, gross premiums written, insurance penetration and density. In comparing the development of the insurance market in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and other European countries or the EU average, it is necessary to select the appropriate indicator given. The development of the global insurance market and the individual insurance markets is influenced not only by events in the world economy (economic development, development of the financial markets, the impact of economic or financial crisis), but it is also influenced by many factors that can be divided into two groups according to how on the insurance market act. In our article, we will focus mainly on extrinsic factors. Data for the analyses were drawn from SwissRe (Sigma journal), Eurostat and OECD databases.