ZURICH (Bloomberg) — Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world's largest reinsurer, expects a "solid" year for the insurance industry in 2007, after fewer losses from natural disasters helped fuel double-digit profit growth this year.Property and casualty insurance is likely to be "very profitable" in 2007, Swiss Re's chief economist Thomas Hess said in a statement faxed before a presentation in London yesterday.

Growth in life insurance will be "robust at around 4.5 percent," he added.

"Further consolidation" in the life insurance market will spur companies in the US and Europe to sell blocks of life business to third parties who can securitise risks, Hess said.