About 80% of the economic loss as a result of the earthquake in Christchurch last February will be covered by insurance, according to Swiss Re's just-released report on recent major quakes. A similar percentage of damage from the September 2010 quake will also have insurance protection. Swiss Re observed that the significantly high percentage "shows New Zealand has one of the highest rates of earthquake insurance penetration". Even in areas with the most developed insurance markets, such as the US, insured cover rarely exceeds 50% of economic loss in the case of major natural catastrophes. The huge difference in insurance market penetration between New Zealand and Japan – where last year's earthquake saw only about 17% of $120bn in economic loss recoverable through insurance – meant that the two events had roughly similar impacts on the global insurance industry. Late last year the New Zealand Reserve Bank estimated that the two quakes and associated aftershocks would cause about NZD30bn ($24bn) in claims. Worldwide seismic events in 2010 and 2011 caused economic losses of some $276bn, said Swiss Re, including $8bn in economic loss in Haiti, of which only 1% was recovered through insurance. The quake in eastern Turkey last year was in an area where only 4% of the economic loss was recoverable from the industry. Swiss Re said that although underwriters' risk models could predict quite accurately the damage caused by ground shaking, "the events in Chile, New Zealand and Japan dramatically highlighted the importance of secondary loss agents". These included the tsunami in Japan and liquefaction in New Zealand, as well as business interruption. Swiss Re said that these aspects were "not yet sufficiently considered in commercially available earthquake risk models."