Major building projects in the US would boost the economy and demand for insurance and reinsurance.

Kevin Kelley, the chief executive officer of Bermuda-based Ironshore, said poorer-than-expected economic performance in key regions had led to a weakening of demand for insurance.

Speaking to AM Best TV, Mr Kelley said: “What we see on a global basis is just lack of demand and an overabundance of supply because of quantitative easing, particularly in Europe and in the United States.”

He added that Europe had turned in weaker gross domestic product growth than had been expected six to nine months ago.

Mr Kelley said: “China is probably closer to where maybe people thought six to nine months ago, but there are a lot of questions around their GDP growth.

“In the US, it’s struggling to approach two-and-a-half to three, so What we see on a global basis is just lack of demand and an overabundance of supply because of quantitative easing, particularly in Europe and in the United States.”

And Mr Kelley said: “What we need are programmes that really do create demand and that will create demand for our services as well.”

Mr Kelley was speaking at the close of last week’s Risk and Insurance Management Society conference in San Diego, California.

He said: “We are in very, very dire need of infrastructure building in the United States to improve productivity and that would create an awful lot of insurance opportunity.”

Mr Kelley added that major shifts — including changes at the top of companies in the industry and mergers and acquisitions — had a major impact.

He said: “I think that 2016 is shaping up very, very differently than any of us would have thought six to nine months ago.

“Nobody would have foreseen, I think, the changes in the CEO suite of a few of our competitors, mergers and some of the issues and challenges faced by some of our other competitors.

“Clearly, we see the potential for distraction in the business and therefore it’s very, very important for firms like ours to be very focused in this kind of environment and to make sure we don’t get distracted and continue to build our business.”

Mr Kelley added that the US presidential race, with Hillary Clinton ahead in the fight for the Democratic nomination and controversial businessman Donald Trump leading the Republican pack, had created uncertainty in the business world.

He said: “When you take a look at both the leading candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties, having unfavourability of 54 for the Democrat and 63 for the Republican, there is a lot of angst surrounding whether either leading candidate can lead.

“What I think we do need, not just here in the United States, but across the West is stronger leadership and the ability to really get the people to work together because we have so many challenges that will require people putting their heads together and making sure we can be up for the challenges.”