First-quarter sales of the U. K. insurer, Aviva fell 14% this year as compared its sale during the same quarter last year. The insurer has said that the decline in profit was due to its plan to move away from selling lower-margin products in areas such as Europe and the U. S.

Aviva has also said that the decline was in line with the expectations of the company has the company had earlier predicted that its first-quarter sales are likely to be 10%-15% lower compared with the first quarter of last year.

The company has also revealed that the long-term savings sales for the January-March period were GBP8.76 billion, whereas last year the sales were GBP10.17 billion.

Chief Executive of Aviva, Andrew Moss said that the company is in a strong position. Sales have increased sharply and the company is gaining good profits. Life sales have declined mainly because the company had changed its product mix to focus on more profitable business.

Net written premiums of Aviva for its general insurance business surged 9% and were at GBP2.7 billion. General insurance combined operating ratio was 97%, which was better as compared to 102%, posted last year.