Barbadians will start seeing a hike of about 10 per cent in their property and motor insurance rates by March.President of the General Insurance Association of Barbados (GIAB) Randy Graham said on Monday that local companies had no choice but to pass on at least a portion of the increased costs of reinsurance.He said the increased costs were influenced by the US$55 billion in claims paid out by reinsurance companies for damage caused by hurricanes in the region in 2022.“The world is so small...people always say we didn’t have any bad ones in Barbados, and they are right. But everything is so interconnected now. The same reinsurance companies that are bringing the capacity to Barbados are the same ones who are dealing with the hurricane losses in Florida or the hail storms in France. In the same way we get the benefits of being globalised, we also get these negative pressures of being part of the global economy as well,” Graham said in an interview with Barbados TODAY.“We are going to work through the year to see what we can do to help the people in Barbados control the insurance costs, but it is going to be very difficult to stop the rate increase during the first part of this year for sure,” he explained, adding that the upward adjustment in reinsurance costs to companies ranged between 15-30 per cent.
