China's premium income up 42% in first 11 months

China's premium income jumped by 42 percent year-on-year to 915.05 billion yuan ($133.58 billion) at the end of November, with the growth rate up 17.6 percentage points over the same period of 2007, the industry regulator said at the annual insurance conference today.

Premiums from non-life insurers hit 215.9 billion yuan at the end of November, up 17.5 percent year-on-year. And those from life insurers climbed by 51.8 percent to 699.14 billion yuan.

Despite the bearish stock market, the insurance industry still see an investment return of 93 billion yuan at the end of November, compared with 95.5 billion yuan for the whole year of 2007. Among the business portfolio, deposits and bonds account for 86 percent, and stocks and funds take for 11.7 percent.