HONG KONG, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The net premiums of general insurance business in Hong Kong recorded a growth of 6 percent to 16.587 billion HK dollars (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006 compared with 2005, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) of Hong Kong said Friday.

Meanwhile, the gross premiums of general insurance business went up 3.2 percent to 23.274 billion HK dollars, according to the provisional statistics of the Hong Kong insurance industry for 2006 released by OCI.

The overall underwriting profit of general insurance business increased from 2.497 billion HK dollars to 2.879 billion HK dollars.

More notable were the improvements in the underwriting performance of ships business turning from a loss of 156 million HK dollars to a profit of 41 million HK dollars, and that of Pecuniary Loss business increasing from a profit of 280 million HK dollars to 455 million HK dollars.

On direct business, gross premiums increased by 4.6 percent to 18.337 billion HK dollars and net premiums increased by 8.1 percent to 13.291 billion HK dollars in 2006. Accident Health business was the main driver in premium growth, registering an increase in gross premiums of 758 million HK dollars to 5.198 billion HK dollars.

Revenue premiums of Individual Life and Annuity (Non-Linked) business and Individual Life and Annuity (Linked) business grew by4.8 percent to 69.641 billion HK dollars and 42.7 percent to 43.042 billion HK dollars, respectively.

In respect of new policies issued to Mainland visitors, office premiums amounted to 2.803 billion HK dollars, representing 5.3 percent of the total new office premiums for individual business in 2006. (One U.S. dollar equals 7.8025 HK dollars)