MUNICH (Bloomberg) ? Munich Re, the world's second-biggest reinsurer, reiterated that it expects 2006 net income of between 3.2 billion ($4.2 billion) and 3.4 billion.

Munich Re also reaffirmed a forecast for spending on non- life reinsurance claims and costs of below 97 cents of every euro in premium income in 2006, an improvement from 110.5 cents in 2005, according to a presentation by Chief Financial Officer Joerg Schneider in Frankfurt yesterday that was posted on the Munich- based company's web-site.

Munich Re raised its full-year earnings forecast in November from a previous estimate of as much as 2.8 billion as third-quarter damage claims plunged a year after Hurricane Katrina. Insured losses due to tropical cyclones amounted to $250 million in 2006 compared with around $87 billion a year earlier, the most expensive in the industry's history, Munich Re said on December 28.