One of Britain's top ranked insurers Aviva has reported that life and pensions policies' sales in the current year's first nine months have dropped by 11%. The company has been hit hard by a weak at home performance, where total sales fell as much as 25%.

Figures reported by Aviva on Wednesday confirmed that total sales for the initial nine month fell to 24.06 Billion Pounds ($39.6 Billion). This has been in line with the estimates put forward by analysts that were polled by the company, who had pegged the slip in sales figures at 24.8 Million Pounds. Additionally, sales of group long-term savings slid by 11%.

"The outlook for the group's total profitability in 2009 is good despite a reduction in sales driven by continuing customer caution and active management of sales volumes to optimize profitability," Andrew Moss, Aviva's group chief executive, said.

UK's financial markets are lately beginning to pick up, as the country is now steadily emerging from the hurt of the recession which had hit the whole world. On the back of a slowly improving economy and financial sector, Aviva is expecting better results for the coming quarters and year.