Panama: insurance king
Thursday, January 12, 2012

The largest insurance market in Central America is Panama, where individuals and businesses last year spent more than $1 billion on premiums.
This was 26% more than Costa Rica, the region’s second-biggest consumer of insurance policies.
Guatemala came third, according to data published last month by Fitch Ratings.
With a population much greater than that of any other Central American country, however, per-capita purchase of insurance in Guatemala ranks higher only than Nicaragua.
At an average of 3.5% of Gross Domestic Product, insurance penetration in Central America generally is lower than in the rest of Latin America, where premiums on average represent 5% of GDP.
Figures reflect the value of total premiums in 2011 in millions of dollars.
- Panama (1,017)
- Costa Rica (749)
- Guatemala (647)
- El Salvador (427)
- Honduras (315)
- Nicaragua (119)