mumbai the demand for nonlife insurance is expected to grow by up to 9 per cent globally with life premium forecast to rise by 4 per cent in 2016 in the emerging markets including india says a report swiss res global insurance review 2015 and outlook 201617 revealed the demand for nonlife insurance is expected to grow at 89 per cent annually in the emerging markets during 2016 and 2017 the life insurance sector faces challenges in particular from ongoing low interest rates nevertheless it said global life premiums forecast to rise about 4 per cent in each of the next two years which will also be led by the emerging markets it added that the global economy is expected to strengthen moderately next year the emerging markets will grow by about 5 per cent in each of the next two years an improvement on the current 4 per cent global economic growth is a good sign for insurers this is especially so in the emerging markets where urbanisation and growing wealth will support overall sector growth weve said for some years now that emerging markets are the growth engines for the insurance industry and this is expected to continue for at least several years more swiss res chief economist kurt karl said nonlife premium growth will improve along with economic activity and demand for primary nonlife insurance should increase in the next two years it opined global primary nonlife premium growth is forecast to improve to 3 per cent in 2016 and 32 per cent in 2017 from 25 per cent this year the growth in advanced markets is expected to fall slightly due to softening prices and only modest improvement in the economic growth it said the emerging markets will be the main drivers in nonlife with premiums rising by an estimated 79 per cent and 87 per cent in 2016 and 2017 respectively after a 56 per cent gain in 2015 premium growth is expected to be the strongest in emerging asia 12 per cent annually and a recovery is expected in central and eastern europe after contraction in 2014 and 2015 despite the challenging pricing environment underwriting profits in primary nonlife insurance have been sustained by low natural catastrophe losses and a continuation of reserve releases from past years it added the report further said that primary life insurers face a significant downside risks in the shorttomedium term from the modest global growth outlook persistently low interest rates volatility in financial markets and regulatory changes nevertheless in the advanced markets real premium income is forecast to rise by about 25 per cent in 2016 and 2017 up from about 2 per cent this year in emerging markets premiums are estimated to grow by 107 per cent in both 2016 and 2017 this improvement will in part be attributable to improved use of currently available technologies such as wearable devices and cloud computing again emerging asia is expected to have the most robust growth of about