IMPORTED CARS ARE PUSHING UP CLAIMS LEVELS IN SOUTH KOREA

The cost of repairing damaged vehicles in South Korea has risen by 50% in the past four years, due in part to the greater number of expensive imported models, according to a report from the Korea Insurance Development Institute. The report claimed that in the financial year to March 2007 insurers paid out 2.7tn won ($2.9bn), up 11.4% year on year and 50% higher than the amount paid in 2002. “According to the statistics we began compiling in 2005, the money insurers spent to repair foreign cars rose 34.9% from 131.6bn won in 2005 to 177.5bn won last year,” an official of the institute was quoted as saying by Yonhap .