As the lift from front loaded consumer spending, especially on motor vehicles, has dissipated and been replaced with sluggish economic growth at home and abroad, premium growth in both the life and non-life sectors has stalled with year-over-year premium growth declining 3.4% in 2014, compared with 14.4% the previous year. Although government infrastructure spending is expected to provide some growth momentum, to the non-life market in 2016 and beyond, this may mostly benefit smaller lines, such as engineering, which may not be able to offset the decline of larger lines, such as motor insurance. While the opening of the nearby markets to global trade provides growth opportunities in a low-growth environment, their impact will likely be marginal to the Thailand insurance industry. Given the size of the Thailand insurance market, and the fact that financial sector liberalization under the ASEAN Economic Community is not expected before 2020, realizing cost efficiencies and retaining good quality risks in the domestic market is likely to be the near term key focus for Thailand insurers.

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