THE IMPACT OF INVESTMENT PLACEMENT BY LIFE AND NON-LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN UKRAINE

Abstract

Ukrainian insurers, especially those engaged in life insurance, like European insurers, have a large potential investor in the financial market and can become a key driver of economic growth. Social significance of the investor activity of insurers is tightly connected with the saving function of insurance. Economic significance of investing activity of the insurance companies is determined by the large volumes of their investment resources.The article analyzes the dynamics and structure of insurance reserves of life and non-life insurers of Ukraine in comparison with foreign insurers. Contrary to foreign experience, when the bulk of the reserves is invested in debt and equity securities and real estate, Ukrainian insurers are mostly oriented towards banking investments due to the underdevelopment of the stock market, high deposit rates, and lack of investment experience. The differences in behavior of life and non-life insurers in the financial market as institutional investors are determined based on the features of insurance activity. The specifics of life insurance lays in the long-term contracts that allow investing a significant portion of the reserves in relatively long-term investment vehicles and significantly reduce the requirements for liquidity of investments. The reserves of life insurance companies are in fact 4 times higher than non-life insurance ones. In order to assess the impact of investment placement of life and non-life insurance on economic growth in Ukraine, the correlation between rates of change of technical provisions and life insurance reserves and GDP in the dynamics of 2001-2016 has been analyzed. The investment activity of life andnon-life insurance companies during the period of 2001-2016 was basically ineffective. This is evidenced by the correlation between the rates of change of insurance reserves and GDP, that is higher than 1.It has been determined that the rate of change of investments is predominantly ahead of the GDP rate. This indicates they are used not to ensure the development of the national economy, and, more likely, with a speculative purpose. There is a cyclical correlation between annual rates of change of technical provisions and GDP. The life insurance investment placement was only effective in 2010, 2011 and 2016. However, it should be noted that over past years, namely from 2014 for non-life insurance, and in 2016 for life insurance, there is a positive trend that allows us to conclude that further prospects for economic growth in Ukraine in dynamics.