March 2025 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of March 2025, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,351,519 members, i.e. 7,295 (0.31%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 76.8% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 19.2% and 4.0% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 8,316 new members, 8,191 (98.3%) were automatically assigned by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,041 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in March amounted to EUR 140.7m (0.6% of net assets at end-February). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 22.4m (0.1% of net assets at end-February), decreasing by EUR 5.0m compared to the previous month.

At the end of March 2025, MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 23.8bn, declining by EUR 176.4m (0.7%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached -2.01% for category A, -1.30% for category B and -0.18% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 10.00% for category A, 7.26% for category B and 3.45% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 7.75% for Mirex A, 5.39% for Mirex B and 3.32% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of March, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 14.2bn (59.7% of total assets), making their share decrease by 1.2 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets decreased by 0.7 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 23.4% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 5.6bn) at the end of March. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 14.2%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.2% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.3bn (9.7% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets decrease by 0.5 p.p. relative to the previous month. Cash and deposits amounted to 5.0% of the assets, or EUR 1.2bn, increasing by 1.6 p.p. on a monthly basis.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of March 2025, 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 0.5%, making the number of members of these funds reach 423,304 and 49,986 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in March 2025 amounted to EUR 11.2m (0.8% of net assets at end-February), decreasing by 3.0% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 5.5m in March, decreasing by 13.3% on a monthly basis. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 69.1%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 22.5%, while those made due to death accounted for 8.5% of total payments in March. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.7m was paid through a pension company (fund), EUR 1.3m 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, net assets of VPFs decreased by EUR 17.5m (1.2% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.47bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -2.4% to -0.3%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 1.4% to 9.2%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 54.0% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 26.0% share and investment funds with a 10.1% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments decreased on a monthly basis by 1.2 p.p., the equity share fell by 0.3 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds declined by 0.5 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In March 2025, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first three months of 2025 amounted to EUR 493.0m, i.e. 9.1% more that in the same period in 2024. EUR 76.8m (15.6%) of this amount related to life insurance premium (1.1% less than in the same period last year), while EUR 416.1m (84.4%) related to non-life insurance premium (11.2% more at an annual level). The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (35.0%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (19.5%), insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.7%) and health insurance (9.1%). The amount of claims settled in the first three months of 2025 reached EUR 294.9m, decreasing by 12.7% compared to same period in 2024. EUR 86.0m (29.2%) of this amount related to life insurance (33.3% less at an annual level), while EUR 209.0m (70.9%) related to non-life insurance (0.1% less compared to the same period in 2024). In the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (42.1%), insurance of road vehicles (21.0%), health insurance (12.2%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (7.4%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 55.5m in March 2025, increasing by 27.1% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 3.4% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 51.7bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 29.7bn, bonds to EUR 19.1bn, money market instruments to EUR 2.7bn and ETFs to EUR 121m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (14.5%) was recorded by CROBEXkonstrukt, while CROBEXindustrija recorded the largest monthly decline (-3.8%). The main ZSE stock index CROBEX recorded a monthly decrease of -1.0%, as did CROBEXtr. The CROBIS bond index recorded a monthly decrease (by 0.2%), while CROBIStr recorded an increase (by 0.02%). KONČAR d.d. was the stock most traded in March, with its turnover amounting to EUR 5.1m (15.2% of the overall trade in stocks in March) and a 6.8% monthly price decrease.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

At the end of March 2025, there were 119 UCITS operating on the market. Their total net assets amounted to EUR 3.5bn, increasing by EUR 106.3m or 3.1% compared to the previous month. Total monthly net payments to UCITS in March were positive, amounting to EUR 145.7m. Positive net payments were recorded by money market funds (EUR 154.4m) and funds categorised as “other” (EUR 23.4m), while negative net payments were recorded by feeder funds (EUR -2.1m), balanced funds (EUR -6.4m), bond funds (EUR -10.0m) and equity funds (-13.7m).

Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 23.4% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of March, money market funds made up 27.3%, funds categorised as “other” 22.4%, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 16.1% and 8.2% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In March 2025, all types of UCITS except for money market funds recorded negative asset-weighted average monthly returns, namely feeder funds (-4.5%), balanced funds (-2.9%), equity funds (-1.4%), “other” funds (-0.9%), and bond funds (-0.03%). Only money market funds recorded a positive asset-weighted average monthly return (0.3%).

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 234.7m (a 3.3% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 3.5%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.