Life insurers' 2008 net plunges 71 pct

SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- Total earnings for life insurers in South Korea tumbled
70.7 percent on-year in fiscal 2008, hit by the slumping economy and financial
turmoil, the financial watchdog said Monday.

The combined net profit of 22 local and foreign life insurers in the country came
to 617.2 billion won (US$494.8 million) in the April-March period, compared with
2.1 trillion won a year earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service said. The
companies close their books on March 31.
"The fall in earnings mainly came as they suffered losses from securities
investment amid falling stock markets," the watchdog said.
The country's key stock index declined about 29 percent in the cited period.
Due to the weaker bottom line, their average return on assets (ROA), a measure of
profitability, declined to 0.2 percent in the April-March period, compared with
0.7 percent a year earlier.
Meanwhile, 29 domestic and foreign non-life insurers posted a combined net profit
of 1.31 trillion won in fiscal 2008, down 21.8 percent from the previous year,
the watchdog said.
Their ROA came in at 1.9 percent in the cited period, down 0.8 percentage point
from a year earlier, it added.
The country's central bank predicted that the South Korean economy is expected to
shrink 2.4 percent this year, the worst performance in 11 years, stung by falling
exports and sluggish domestic demand.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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