Catastrophe Recap states that total economic losses in Q1 2022 were $31 billion worldwide, with just under half of this covered by public and private insurers. The company also stated that this is the sixth year in a row that Q1 losses have exceeded $10 billion.
"However," the report's authors add, "it is important to remember that these totals are expected to be revised upwardly, possibly significantly, in the coming weeks and months." This type of loss development is common and to be expected in the aftermath of larger-scale events."
Several significant weather events were highlighted in the report. These included the February windstorms across Europe, which it called the costliest event of Q1 2022 and caused insurers to lose more than $4.3 billion; the March earthquake in Japan, which is expected to cost more than $2 billion; the severe convective storm outbreaks in the US in the same month, which are expected to cost billions of dollars; and extensive flooding in Australia.
The authors of the report attempted to paint a picture of the overall landscape.
"Years with elevated Q1 economic losses, such as 1994 (United States), 2010 (Chile and Haiti), 2011 (Japan and New Zealand), 2020 (Croatia), and 2021, have frequently been amplified by major earthquake events," they wrote (Japan). However, in recent years, the increasing impact of'secondary perils' such as winter weather, flooding, and severe convective storms has accounted for a significant portion of the overall quarterly economic cost."
"This reinforces the question of whether the term'secondary peril' has become obsolete because losses associated with these perils are impacting more populated communities with increasing intensity and resulting in higher loss costs," they added.
This occurs against a backdrop in which the combined Q1 losses for 2021 and 2022 were the second highest on record, trailing only those for 2020 and 2021. Losses in the latter period were $36 billion, compared to $40 billion in the previous period. However, both of these figures were influenced by the $25 billion loss in the first quarter of 2021.