Major brokers are continuing to pour water on the prospect of a global hardening market, with Marsh the latest to dismiss suggestions of rate rises in its latest market update.

Marsh says any increases in rates during the quarter were “confined to loss-affected exposures”.

“In regions and for classes of business not affected by recent losses, there was little change in market conditions in the first quarter of 2011 as overall insurance capacity remains plentiful, especially for new business.”

But insurers and reinsurers are telling a different story, with US insurer WR Berkley stating that premium prices achieved in the first quarter increased on average by almost 1%.

Announcing its first-quarter results, Chairman and CEO William Berkley says prices for the quarter “were up in nearly all areas. This is the first time in 17 quarters that we can make such a positive statement.

“There are increasing signs of a turn in the cycle, but as always, the change starts gradually,” he said. “We are beginning to see material rate increases not just limited to catastrophe business, but also in a number of other lines of business.”

Munich Re CEO Nikolaus von Bomhard is another spruiking a rise in rates, telling the group’s AGM last week that while figures are not yet available on the company’s April 1 renewals, “general price increases in the current financial year” are expected.