Aug 01, 2019 / 10:00AM GMT
Operator
Welcome, and thank you for joining the Generali 2019 Half Year Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions)
At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Giulia Raffo, Head of Investor and Rating Relations. Please go ahead, Madam.
Giulia Raffo - - Head of Investor & Rating Agency relations
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Generali First Half 2019 Conference Call. Here with me, I have our General Manager, Frédéric de Courtois; our Group CFO, Cristiano Borean.
We are looking forward to ask your questions. Thank you very much.
Questions and Answers:
Operator(Operator Instructions) The first question is from Peter Eliot with Kepler Cheuvreux.
Peter Eliot - - Kepler Cheuvreux, Research Division
My questions really were all about the combined ratio. The main one, I guess I was surprised by the speed of the sort of increase of the expense ratio due to the business mix and also the speed of the offsetting reduction in the loss ratio