Finnish insurer Sampo's quarterly earnings beat forecasts

(Reuters) -Finnish insurer Sampo on Wednesday reported a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly earnings, boosted by continuous good performance of its main subsidiary If and gains from selling stake and dividends from Nordea bank.

The insurer added it sees upside risk to costs of claim payments that had risen by around 3% in the Nordic region.

"The rise in energy and commodity prices triggered by the war in Ukraine has increased uncertainty over the trajectory of inflation," Chief Executive Torbjorn Magnusson said in a statement.

Sampo's January-March pretax profit fell 10% to 566 million euros ($595.26 million), beating the 476.5 million euro mean estimate in a company provided poll.

Its first-quarter combined ratio increased 2.3 percentage points to 83.5%, missing analysts' consensus estimate of 82.8%. A ratio below 100 means an insurer earns more in premiums than it pays out in claims.

($1 = 0.9508 euros)

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, Editing by Louise Heavens)