March 2024 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of March 2024, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,264,732 members, i.e. 4,649 (0.21%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 80.3% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 15.0% and 4.7% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 5,648 new members, 5,500 (97.4%) were automatically allocated by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,000 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in March amounted to EUR 116.2m (0.6% of net assets at the end of February). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 15.6m (0.1% of net assets at the end of February), decreasing by EUR 0.9m compared to the previous month.

MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 21.2bn, rising by EUR 0.4bn (1.8%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 2.0% for category A, 1.4% for category B and 0.3% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 15.2% for category A, 11.2% for category B and 4.2% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation stood at 7.5% for Mirex A, 5.3% for Mirex B and 3.3% for Mirex C^[2].

MPFs’ bond investments totalled EUR 12.9bn (60.9% of total assets), making their share decrease by 0.5 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets increased by 0.3 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 23.5% of MPFs’ total assets (EUR 5.0bn). Investments in domestic shares accounted for 14.0%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.5% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds reached EUR 2.3bn (10.8% of assets), making their share in total assets remain the same as in the previous month. Investments in cash and deposits amounted to EUR 759.2m, i.e. 3.6% of MPFs’ assets.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of March 2024, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.5% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 0.3%, making the number of members of these funds reach 400,916 and 48,909 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in March amounted to EUR 10.1m (0.8% of their net assets at the end of the previous month), decreasing by 3.0% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 4.7m, falling by EUR 1.7m (26.2%%) compared to payments made from VPFs in the previous month. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 72.6%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 22.9%, while those made due to death accounted for 3.5% of total payments. As regards payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.4m was paid through a pension company (fund), the amount of EUR 1.2m was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 0.8m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

In March, VPFs’ net assets increased by EUR 23.0m (1.8% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.3bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from 0.3% to 2.6%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 3.7% to 18.3%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 53.9% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 25.1% share and investment funds with a 10.0% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments decreased on a monthly basis by 0.2 p.p., the share of investments in investment funds fell by 0.1 p.p., while the equity share rose by 0.5 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In March 2024, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. Their total gross written premium collected in the first three months of 2024 amounted to EUR 451.9m, of which EUR 77.7m (17.2%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 374.2m (82.8%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (36.3%), followed by insurance of land vehicles (19.0%) and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.5%). The amount of claims settled in the first quarter of 2024 reached EUR 338.0m. EUR 128.8m of this amount related to life insurance (38.1%), while EUR 209.2m related to non-life insurance (61.9%). Within the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (40.5%), insurance of land vehicles (21.1%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (11.2%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 49.4m in March 2024, increasing by 40.6% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 2.1% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 43.9bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 24.9bn, bonds to EUR 17.9bn, money market instruments to 1.1bn and ETFs to 33m. As for stock indices, the largest monthly rise was recorded by CROBEXindustrija (6.6%%), while CROBEXtransport recorded the smallest monthly rise (0.6%). The main ZSE stock index CROBEX also rose, as did CROBEXtr (both by 3.9%). The ZSE bond index CROBIS fell by 0.1%, while CROBIStr recorded a 0.2% monthly growth. HT d.d. stock was the stock most traded in March, with its turnover amounting to EUR 4.7m (14.4% of the overall trade in March) and a 9.4% monthly price increase.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In March 2024, there were 112 UCITS operating on the market. Their total net assets amounted to EUR 2.6bn at the end of the month, increasing by EUR 150.6m or 6.2% compared to the previous month. Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 33.8% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of March, while funds categorised as “other” funds, equity funds and balanced funds accounted for 27.9%, 16.3% and 10.6% of the total net assets of UCITS respectively. Total net payments recorded by all UCITS in March were positive and totalled EUR 114.5m. Positive net payments were recorded by money market funds (EUR 104.7m), “other” funds (EUR 35.6m), equity funds (EUR 9.7m) and balanced funds (EUR 0.9m), while negative monthly net payments were recorded by feeder funds (EUR -1.3m) and bond funds (EUR -35.0m).   

Positive asset-weighted average monthly returns were generated by all UCITS, namely equity (4.1%), feeder (1.8%), “other” (1.4%), balanced (1.5%), bond (1.0%) and money market (0.3%) funds. Asset-weighted average annual returns at the end of March 2024 stood at 24.0% for equity funds, 8.9% for feeder funds, 8.8% for balanced funds, 6.8% for “other” funds, and 2.6% for bond funds.

The net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 163.4m (a 9.2% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 9.4%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.