The hurricane trio of Harvey, Irma and Maria led to record payouts for the global insurance industry last year, Munich Re has confirmed.

The reinsurer says the final insurance bill for the hurricanes and other natural catastrophes, including a severe earthquake in Mexico, is expected to hit a new high of $US135 billion ($109 billion).

Overall losses for the year, including uninsured losses, totalled $US330 billion ($267 billion), the second-highest figure for natural disasters, behind 2011.

Munich Re identified 710 natural catastrophes last year, significantly more than the average of 605. About 10,000 people were killed, slightly more than the previous year but much lower than the 10-year average of 60,000.

The board member responsible for global reinsurance business, Torsten Jeworrek, says last year was a taste of what is to come.

“Even though individual events cannot be directly traced to climate change, our experts expect such extreme weather to occur more often in future,” he said.