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Natural disasters cost French insurers 10 billion euros ($10.9 billion) last year, a two-decade high as such events become more frequent and intense, the head of the sector's federation said Thursday.

"It was an annus horribilis," France Assureurs president Florence Lustman told Europe 1 radio, citing the hailstorms, floods and droughts that hit the country last year.

Natural disasters cost the industry 3.5 billion euros on average per year between 2017-2021.

The 2022 figure is the highest since storms pummelled France in 1999.

The insurance federation said the bill from natural disasters will exceed 140 billion euros over the next 30 years, double the amount for the previous three decades.

Reinsurance giant Swiss Re said in December that natural and man-made catastrophes caused $268 billion of economic losses worldwide in 2022.