Insurance services were redefined and new estimation methods developed to remove the impact of catastrophic events on the measure of services activity. Insurance services were previously measured as premiums less actual losses paid or recovered. A major shortcoming of the previous measure was that losses could fluctuate from period to period in a way that had little relation to the services provided. The new method measures services as premiums less expected, or “normal” losses; normal losses are inferred from the relationship between actual losses and premiums averaged over several years. Estimates were revised for 1992-2002. In addition, auxiliary insurance services were reclassified from business, professional, and technical services to insurance services.
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