August 2024 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of August 2024, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,307,130 members, i.e., 13,478 (0.59%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 78.6% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 17.0% and 4.4% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 14,820 new members, 14,621 (98.7%) were automatically allocated by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,342 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in August amounted to EUR 130.8m (0.6% of net assets at end-July). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 29.4m (0.1% of net assets at end-July), falling by EUR 12.5m compared to the previous month.

At the end of August 2024, MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 22.2bn, rising by EUR 0.1bn (0.4%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached -0.2% for category A, -0.1% for category B and 0.4% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 13.3% for category A, 10.0% for category B and 4.7% for category C. Year-to-date returns reached 9.1% for category A, 6.4% for category B and 2.0% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 7.6% for Mirex A, 5.3% for Mirex B and 3.3% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of August, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 13.5bn (60.9% of total assets), making their share increase by 0.3 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets decreased by 0.6 p.p. on a monthly level, amounting to 23.1% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 5.1bn) at the end of August 2024. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 13.9%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.2% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.1bn (9.5% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets decrease by 0.7 p.p. relative to the previous month. Investments in cash and deposits amounted to 4.2% of the assets, or EUR 939.9m.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of August 2024, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.2% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 1 member, making the number of members of these funds reach 409,328 and 49,145 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in August 2024 amounted to EUR 8.5m (0.6% of net assets at end-June), decreasing by 17.2% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 3.9m, decreasing by EUR 0.2m (5.8%) compared to total payments made from VPFs in the previous month. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 75.1%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 20.0%, while those made due to death accounted for 4.9% of total payments in August. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.4m was paid through a pension company (fund), the amount of EUR 0.8m was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 0.6m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

In August 2024, net assets of VPFs increased by EUR 2.3m (0.2% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.4bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -1.0% to 0.4%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 3.7% to 14.5%. VPFs’ year-to-date returns ranged from 1.6% to 10.1%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 55.5% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 26.3% share and investment funds with a 9.2% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments increased on the monthly basis by 0.5 p.p., the equity share fell by 0.6 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds decreased by 0.8 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In August 2024, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first eight months of 2024 amounted to EUR 1.3bn, of which EUR 225.5m (17.7%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 1.0bn (82.3%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (36.5%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (18.8%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.3%). The value of claims settled in the first eight months of 2024 reached EUR 836.6m. EUR 314.6m (37.6%) of this amount related to life insurance, while EUR 522.0m (62.4%) related to non-life insurance. In the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (41.0%), insurance of road vehicles (22.0%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.0%).

CAPITAL MARKET

In August 2024, the total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 25.2m, decreasing by 57.4% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation slightly decreased (by 0.2%) relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 42.6bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 25.3bn, bonds to EUR 18.7bn, money market instruments to EUR 2.6bn and ETFs to 60m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (4.2%) was recorded by CROBEXindustrija, while CROBEXnutris recorded the largest monthly decline (2.6%). The main stock index of the ZSE (CROBEX) also recorded a monthly decrease (1.5%), as well as CROBEXtr (1.4%). Bond index CROBIS recorded a monthly increase (0.3%), same as CROBIStr (0.5%). KONČAR d.d. was the stock most traded in August again, with its turnover amounting to EUR 2.5m (17.1% of the overall trade in stocks in August) and a 0.5% monthly price increase.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In August 2024, there were 115 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 2.9bn at the end of the month, increasing by EUR 51.1m or 1.8% compared to the previous month. Total monthly payments of all UCITS in August were positive, amounting to EUR 50.1m. Positive net payments were recorded by money market funds (EUR 29.6m), funds categorised as “other” (EUR 18.5m) and bond funds (EUR 4.7m). Negative net payments were recorded by balanced funds (EUR -1.8m), equity funds (EUR -0.8m) and feeder funds (EUR -0.2m). Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 28.3% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of August, funds categorised as “other” accounted for 26.0%, money market funds 16.3%, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 16.6% and 9.6% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In August 2024, positive asset-weighted average monthly returns were recorded by funds categorised as “other” (0.7%), bond funds (0.6%), feeder funds (0.5%), balanced funds (0.8%), and money market funds (0.2%), while a negative return was recorded by equity funds only (-0.2%). At the end of August 2024, the asset-weighted average annual returns stood at 22.8% for equity funds, 9.2% for feeder funds, 8.5% for balanced funds, 5.9% for funds categorised as “other" and 4.1% for bond funds.

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 172.2m (a monthly decrease of 0.9%), with the monthly return of the fund reaching -0.8%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.