Life insurers in Taiwan posted pre-tax profit of NT$17.6bn ($5.7bn) for the first two months of this year, a decrease of 46.3% compared with the corresponding period last year, according to data from the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC).

The non-life sector reported pre-tax profit of NT$3bn, for January-February, a decrease of 11.8% compared with the corresponding period last year.

The overall insurance industry's pre-tax income for the first two months of this year was NT$20.6bn, a decline of 43.1% compared with the corresponding period last year.

Local life insurers booked foreign exchange gains of NT$27.6bn for the first two months of this year, while hedging losses totalled NT$58.9bn and the net decrease in the forex volatility reserve was CNY9.8bn.

The net forex losses for local life insurance companies in January to February was NT$41.1bn.

The Taiwanese currency depreciated against the US dollar by 0.14% in the first two months of the year-on-year.

For the whole of 2018, the life industry incurred a hedging cost of NT$484bn, and a pretax profit of NT$84.2bn.