China's insurance premium income hit 598.61 billion yuan (US$87.64 billion) in the first half, up 6.6 percent over the same period last year, said Wu Dingfu, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, on Monday.

Profits of the country's insurers nationwide was about 26.1 billion yuan in the first half, up 98 percent, Wu said at a national insurance regulation working conference in Beijing.

China's insurance premium income hit 598.61 billion yuan (US$87.64 billion) in the first half, up 6.6 percent over the same period last year.

The premium income figure is more than 1 billion yuan higher than the 597.55 billion yuan premium figure announced by the commission last week.

"The previous figure was an initial assessment, and the figure released today is accurate," said Cai Jipu, head of the commission's information office.

Property insurance premium revenues rose 16.4 percent year on year to 151.18 billion yuan; life insurance premium income was 447.43 billion yuan, up 3.6 percent.

Total assets of the country's insurance companies stood at 3.7 trillion yuan by the end of June, an increase of 10.9 percent from the beginning of the year.

"Although world financial crisis had some negative effect on the insurance industry, this sector is still stable and sound as a whole," Wu said.

The government's efforts to boost infrastructure construction provided more channels or opportunities for insurance companies to invest insurance funds, he added.

Income from insurance investment funds totaled 109.97 billion yuan in the first half, an increase of 69.5 percent over the same period last year.

To cope with the world economic downturn, China's government unveiled a 4-trillion-yuan stimulus packages in November, which laid out infrastructure projects in the transport, communications and energy sectors.

Wu also underscored the importance of avoiding risks, asking government departments and insurers to further improve supervision and to better manage the use of insurance funds.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2009)