ALLIANZ GROUP 64 In life and health insurance, our growth continued. After adjustment for currency and consolidation effects, revenues were up 10.9 percent. In IFRS accounts, which only recognize the risk  and cost elements in premiums from investment-oriented products, premium income increased 0.1 percent to 20.7 billion euros.  Earnings before taxes and amortization of goodwill came to 1,155 (83) million euros. Our subsidiary, Allianz Life Korea, re- quired an unscheduled amortization of goodwill in the amount of 224 million euros, a measure that reflects current estimates of net interest yields in South Korea. This increased total amor- tization of goodwill to 398 million euros. Taking this expense into consideration, and after deduction of tax (589 million eu- ros) which increased substantially as a result of a change in Ger- man tax law, and minority interests of 216 million euros, we posted a  loss of 48 (profit of 19) million euros. The business portfolio of unit-linked life insurance and other in- vestment-oriented life insurance products grew 10.8 percent af- ter adjustment for currency effects, and contributed 51.1 percent of total revenues amounting to 42.3 (40.2) billion euros. The following table shows the revenues we generated from invest- ment-oriented products in the various countries. Revenues from investment-oriented life insurance products 2003 2002 2001 ¤ mn ¤ mn ¤ mn Italy 7,776 6,419 4,608 U.S.A. 7,488 8,119 3,504 France 2,866 2,790 3,308 Switzerland 641 546 590 Germany 522 331 12 South Korea 474 652 583 Netherlands 259 103 252 Belgium 129 100 105 Spain 71 49 61 Other countries 1,405 404 519 Total 21,630 19,513 13,542 The  expense ratio , in relation to total revenues, i. e. including investment-oriented products, improved once again from 10.0 to 7.9 percent. In IFRS accounts, the expense ratio also declined from 19.3 to 17.1 percent. In absolute terms, net expenses de- creased by 0.6 billion euros. Net  investment income rose to 9.8 (7.4) billion euros. This in- crease is mainly attributable to the fact that – parallel to the re- covery of the financial markets – the balance of write-ups and write-downs on our investment portfolio improved significantly to – 1.3 billion euros, compared to – 2.3 billion euros in the pre- vious year. But the balance of realized gains and losses also im- proved to – 0.3 (– 1.1) billion euros. 