Comparatively calm first half of 2014 for insurers. Swiss Re, the second biggest European re-insurance company, has published a study on the cost of natural and man-made disasters in the first half of 2014. According to initial estimates, insured losses from disaster events amounted to $21 billion from overall economic losses of $44 billion. This figure is down compared to the average amount over the past ten years ($27 billion in insured losses). Natural disasters caused total economic losses of $41 billion, well below the $59 billion in the first half of 2013 and the average first-half year loss of the previous 10 years ($94 billion). Of the overall insured losses, $19 billion came from natural catastrophe events. The main disasters in terms of insured losses were caused by hurricanes in the US. Around $2.6 billion were earmarked for storms and hail stone storms in mid-May; $1.7 billion for bad winter weather conditions and $1.1 billion for the tornadoes that struck last spring. Storm Ela caused significant damage to France, Germany and Belgium, representing total insured losses of $2.5 billion. Man-made disasters triggered $2 billion in insurance losses in the first half of 2014, as opposed to $5 billion in the first half of 2013. After a decade characterised by natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in the US in 2005 ($125 billion in damages of which $67 billion were insured losses) and the tsunami of 2011 in Japan ($235 billion in damages of which $35 billion were insured losses), the first half of 2014 was relatively calm. In human terms, however, it has been catastrophic, with 4,700 lives being lost in disasters so far this year. (IL)