Thailand's insurance market could expand at 6% annually over the next 10 years, supported by the existing low gross written premium of 5% of GDP, especially for long-term savings and pension insurance products, says Allianz Global.
In 2017, Thailand's gross written premium per capita, including life and non-life insurance products, was valued at €280 (10,515 baht), said Allianz chief economist Michael Heise.
That figure was less than €320 in Malaysia, €2,560 in Japan, €3,970 in Taiwan and €4,190 in Singapore, Mr Heise said.
The low gross written premium to GDP per capita gives Thailand's insurance market good growth potential, he said, as the market is small and lags behind regional peers in private long-term savings and pension products.
Thailand's age dependency ratio, the ratio of older dependents to the working-age population, is estimated to rise to 29% in 2030 and 50% in 2050 from 17% at present, Allianz Global said.
Thailand's gross financial asset per capita is less than a third of the global average, Mr Heise said.
According to the Allianz Global Wealth Report 2018, which puts the asset and debt situation of households in more than 50 countries worldwide under the microscope, financial assets and loans of Asia's private households reached a new record high of about €50 trillion.
For Thailand, private households' financial assets in 2017 grew by 6.2%, slower than the regional and global averages of 9.7% and 7.7%, as household income was not sufficient for savings.
The country's private households held only 1% of Asia's private household financial assets.
In 2017, Thailand's financial asset growth was 6.2%, down from 9.8% in the previous year, mainly due to significantly lower growth in securities of 9.8%, down from 20% in 2016.
"There was an improvement to 83% of the population having access to financial services, resulting in 83.2% of the population aged 25 and older having bank accounts, from less than 80% in the previous year," Mr Heise said.
He said Thailand's insurance market lacks Asia's dynamic growth, as the assets of Thais are mainly tied up in bank deposits (45% of total financial assets), followed by securities, stocks and bonds (39.3%) and the rest in life insurance and pensions.