Natural and man-made disasters cost insurers $US34 billion ($43.2 billion) last year, down from $US45 billion ($57.2 billion) in 2013, preliminary global figures from Swiss Re show.

The drop is due partly to a benign North Atlantic hurricane season, which helped offset extreme winter weather in the US that caused above-average insured losses of $US1.7 billion ($2.2 billion).

“No major hurricane made landfall in the US, the ninth year running this has happened,” Swiss Re says. “The North Atlantic hurricane season was relatively mild again.”

Economic losses from natural and man-made disasters totalled $US113 billion ($143.7 billion) last year, down from $US135 billion ($171.7 billion) in 2013.

Storms that struck the US across five days in May caused insured losses of $US2.9 billion ($3.7 billion) – the largest loss last year.

The biggest insured loss in Europe was $US2.7 billion ($3.4 billion) when wind and hailstorm Ela lashed parts of France, Germany and Belgium in June.

Asia’s biggest catastrophe occurred in Japan in February, when a snowstorm cost insurers $US2.5 billion ($3.2 billion).