CHINA'S insurance premiums rose 22.7 percent in the first three months of this year as a government push to dismantle public pension and cradle-to-grave social welfare pushed more citizens to sign up with insurers for protection.

Premium income rose to 196.4 billion yuan (US$25.4 billion) in the first quarter compared with last year, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said yesterday in a statement. Insurance assets rose to 2.24 trillion yuan as at the end of March, the Beijing-based regulator said without giving a year-ago comparison. The chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, Wu Dingfu, is trying to ease rules to allow insurers to invest their funds more freely in the stock market to improve their returns. Chinese insurers put 18.3 percent of 2.04 trillion yuan of funds reserved for investments in the stock market, the regulator said.