Floods have been the world’s costliest natural disasters so far this year, according to Impact Forecasting’s first-half catastrophe report.

Events in Australia, Europe, Asia and Canada caused 42% of global economic losses and 43% of insured losses in the first six months.

In total, natural disasters caused $US85 billion ($91.78 billion) of global economic losses and $US20 billion ($21.6 billion) of insured losses.

However, economic and insured losses were below recent 10-year averages – down 15% from $US100 billion ($107.98 billion) and 20% from $US25 billion ($26.99 billion) respectively.

Central European floods in May and June caused almost 25% of all economic losses, at $US22 billion ($23.75 billion), while the magnitude-6.6 earthquake in China’s Sichuan province in April cost about $US14 billion ($15.12 billion).

There were 19 disasters with economic losses more than $US1 billion ($1.08 billion) – with five in the US during severe weather from March to June.

About 24% of global economic losses were covered by insurance, with several catastrophes in areas where insurance penetration or specific peril coverage is low.

There were seven insured loss events of more than $US1 billion, with payouts for the central European floods expected to reach at least $US5.3 billion ($5.72 billion).

Flooding in Australia in January, which claimed six lives, cost $US1.04 billion ($1.12 billion). Four people died in last month’s floods in Canada, with the insured loss estimated at $US1 billion.

About half of all insured losses were caused by natural disasters in the US, including $US2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) from severe weather and tornadoes in May that destroyed up to 13,000 buildings in Oklahoma.

Impact Forecasting is Aon Benfield’s catastrophe modeller.