Natural disaster damage reached a four-year high in 2016

Insurers paid out around $50 billion for natural disaster claims last year, a jump from 2015’s $32 billion, reinsurer Munich Re said in its annual review on Wednesday. It was the costliest year for natural catastrophe damage in four years, but the number of people killed dropped significantly from 2015. Earthquakes in Japan and floods in China (only 2% of whose losses were insured) were the most expensive natural disasters of 2016.