During the quarter in 2008, life insurance confidence in South Africa moved sideways from 51 to 53 index points.

The survey, which is the 22nd quarterly survey conducted by the Bureau for Economic Research measured confidence in the life insurance sector.

Life insurance confidence is in line with sentiment in the other financial services industries, slightly ahead of the banking industry (50 points) and investment managers (49 index points).

Tim Rutherford, from a life insurance company commented on the findings: “This is in contrast to the last few quarters where confidence among life insurers trailed that of other financial services sectors, probably reflecting that overall, the life operations are in good shape.”

Rutherford said that even know the recession has affected a lot of businesses, premium income growth is faring quite well.

But on a sober note, Rutherford stated that all life insurers have been struggling because of the credit crunch: “Across the globe, life insurers are struggling to earn positive profits, when they depend quite strongly on equity markets for a sizeable portion of their income.”