In Asian markets the premium growth was flat when compared to previous year, further offsetting the sector's strong performance in other regions. In India, life premiums showed a 0.5 per cent growth for the period, whereas non-life premiums saw a 4.1 per cent growth. Total premiums for India stood at $66 billion up by 1.2 per cent and world premiums were up by 1.4 per cent at $4641 billion.

"The sector's slowdown in U.S. was out of synch with the economic recovery there,” Kurt Karl, Swiss Re's Chief Economist, said in the study. "Yes, the economy slowed slightly but last year's employment and housing market numbers were positive. Even stripping out the effect of those large corporate deals in 2012, U.S. life premiums would still have been down 1.6 percent."

The study said life premium growth was expected to resume in the advanced and the emerging markets. The firming economy and labour markets in the advanced markets will support the life and non-life sector, and growth in the emerging markets should hold up also. “In the life sector, China and India in particular should see a return to higher growth rates,” said the Swiss re sigma study.

Mahesh Puttaiah, one of the authors of the study notes: "As people get wealthier and acquire more physical assets to protect, for example vehicles, they spend more on non-life insurance products. That is what is happening in many emerging Asian countries." In India, however, non-life sales growth slowed to 4.1 percent from 8.9 percent in 2012, due to a slower economy and weaker business sentiment.