Floods and earthquakes have blown out claims figures for the Australian general insurance industry in the March quarter.

According to the latest figures from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), which were released on Friday, the industry reported gross claims of $16.6 billion.

This dwarfed the previous quarter’s claims of $6 billion, with the Queensland floods, cyclone Yasi and the Christchurch earthquake blamed for the blowout.

Property was the sector that saw the biggest leap in claims, up from $900 million in the December quarter to $2.5 billon in the latest figures.

Fire claims increased from $800 million in December to $3.8 billion in March.

Insurers were also faced with falling revenue during the March 2011 quarter with net earned premium of $6.2 billion compared to $6.6 billion in the December quarter.

Net earned premium fell across most sectors during March with only product liability and professional indemnity reporting growth.

Product liability net earned premium in March were $454 million compared to $431 in the December quarter.

The premium growth for professional indemnity insurance was up only $1 million to $249 million in March.

The biggest fall in net earned premium was in household insurance, down from $1 billion in the December quarter to $799 million in March.

Domestic motor vehicle net earned premium also suffered a fall, down from $1.37 billion in December to $1.33 billion in the March quarter.

The combined effect of lower premiums and high claims hit the bottom line of general insurers.

Net profits after tax for the industry were $500 million compared to $1.1 billion in the December quarter.

But higher reinsurance recoveries from the various natural disasters saw total assets for the industry rise by $9.1 billion during the March quarter to $110.8 billion.

The amount recovered by general insurers from reinsurers was $20.1 billion in the March quarter compared to $11.2 in December last year.

Despite the increased recovery rates, solvency coverage for general insurers was 1.8 times the minimum capital requirement during the March quarter compared to 1.91 in December.

The capital base for general insurers in March was $26.3 billion compared to $27.3 billion in December.