When compared with the banking sector and the initiatives taken by Banque du Liban (BDL), the year was unnervingly quiet for the country’s insurance industry. Preliminary information on the performance of insurance companies suggests that the 4 percent growth in gross premiums to $1.2 billion at the end of the third quarter was low when compared with growth rates achieved in most of the past ten years. However, growth was not devastatingly low when one compares it to the inflation rate in the Lebanese economy, which edged into positive territory this year, but was too small to provide the economy with growth incentives. According to figures by the Association des Compagnies d’Assurances au Liban (ACAL), premium growth rates in several lines of non-life insurance were negative at end of September 2016. Indications of positive premiums growth came only from two small business lines, miscellaneous and public liability insurance and from
