GROWTH in premium income for PICC Property and Casualty Co, China mainland's largest non-life insurer, is on the gallop. It lifted 28 percent in the four months to April, Bloomberg News reported.

PICC collected 32.4 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) in premiums in the first four months of the year, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange late on Saturday, without providing more details or comparative figures.

The insurer got 25.3 billion yuan in premiums for the same period in 2006, it said in a statement last year.

Shares of the Beijing-based company, 16.3 percent owned by American International Group Inc, declined one percent to HK$4.93 (63 US cents) in Hong Kong trade on Friday.