September 2023 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of September 2023, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,230,107 members, i.e. 9,628 (0.43%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 82.4% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 13.2% and 4.3% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 11,238 new members, 10,953 (97.5%) were automatically allocated by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,610 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in September amounted to EUR 109.6m (0.6% of net assets at the end of August). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 23.3m (0.1% of net assets at the end of August), increasing by EUR 4.2m compared to the previous month).

At the end of September 2023, MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 19.4bn, rising by EUR 76.4m (0.4%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached -0.1% for category A, -0.02% for category B and -0.2% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 13.2% for category A, 7.5% for category B and 1.9% for category C, while annualised[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation stood at 6.9% for Mirex A, 5.1% for Mirex B and 3.1% for Mirex C[2]. Since the beginning of 2023, nine-month returns amounted to 10.5%, 6.5% and 1.1% for category A, B and C respectively.

At the end of September, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 12.1bn (62.6% of total assets), making their share increase by 0.6 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets decreased by 0.1 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 22.1% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 4.3bn). Investments in domestic shares accounted for 13.6%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 8.5% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.2bn (11.1% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets fall by 0.2 p.p. relative to the previous month. Investments in cash and deposits amounted to 3.0% of the assets, or EUR 575.6m.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of September 2023, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.4% on a monthly basis, while the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs) increased by 0.02%, making the number of members of these funds reach 387,224 and 47,948 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in September amounted to EUR 8.9m (0.8% of their net assets at end-August), rising by EUR 0.9m compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 3.7m, increasing by EUR 0.7m (23.2%) compared to the previous month. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 67.8%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 28.9%, while those made due to death accounted for 3.3% of total payments. With respect to payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.2m was paid through a pension company (fund), the amount of EUR 0.7m 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 September, VPFs’ net assets increased by EUR 1.5m (0.1% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.2bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -0.5% to 0.1%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 1.9% to 15.9%. VPFs’ returns in the first nine months of the year ranged between 1.4% and 11.3%.

As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 55.1% share in assets, followed by stocks with a 25.7% share and investment funds with an 11.5% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments increased on the monthly basis by 0.2 p.p., the share of investments in investment funds increased by 0.1 p.p., while equity share decreased by 0.6 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In September 2023, there were 15 insurance companies operating on the market. Their total premium collected in the first nine months of 2023 amounted to EUR 1.3bn, of which EUR 0.2bn (17.15%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 1.1bn (82.85%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the collected non-life insurance premium is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (35.7%), followed by insurance of land vehicles (17.9%) and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.3%). The amount of claims settled in the first eight months of 2023 reached EUR 813.4m. EUR 315.4m of this amount related to life insurance (38.8%), while EUR 498.0m related to non-life insurance (61.2%). Within the total amount of claims settled in non-life insurance, the largest amounts related to motor vehicle liability insurance (40.7%), insurance of land vehicles (20.9%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (8.9%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 48.6m in September 2023, increasing by 7.6% on a monthly level. Market capitalisation fell by 0.1% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 39.1bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 21.2bn, bonds to EUR 17.8bn and ETFs to 16m. As for stock indices, the largest monthly rise was recorded by CROBEXtransport (2.6%), while CROBEXkonstrukt recorded the largest monthly decrease (-3.2%). The main ZSE stock index (CROBEX) also fell (by -0.8%), as did CROBEXtr (by -0.9%). The main bond index CROBIS decreased by 0.2%, while CROBIStr increased by 0.1%. Since the beginning of 2023, the main stock indices CROBEX and CROBEX10 recorded an increase of 22.8% and 27.4% respectively, while the bond index CROBIS recorded a decrease of 2.9% and CROBIStr a decrease of 1.0%. Podravka d.d. was the stock most traded in September, with its turnover amounting to EUR 8.7m (27.2% of the overall trade in stocks in September) and a 0.3% monthly price increase. The same stock was the most traded one in the first nine months of 2023, with its turnover amounting to EUR 30.1m in the first three quarters of this year (20.4% of the total turnover in the first nine months).

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In September 2023, there were 107 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 2.1bn at the end of the month, decreasing by EUR 0.8m or 0.04% compared to the previous month. Total monthly net payments of all UCITS in September were positive and reached EUR 11.1m. Negative monthly net payments were recorded by balanced funds (EUR -3.4m), bond funds (EUR -1.2m) and feeder funds (EUR -1.0m). Positive net payments were recorded by funds belonging to the “other” category (EUR 13.1m) and equity funds (EUR 3.6m). Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 40.3% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of September, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 16.5% and 13.1% of total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In September 2023, negative asset-weighted average monthly returns were generated by all UCITS, namely equity (-0.6%), feeder (-2.2%), balanced (-1.3%), bond (-0.5%) and other (-0.8%) UCITS. Asset-weighted average returns in the first nine months were positive for all types of UCITS, other than bond funds (-0.1), with the highest return having been recorded by equity (16.4%), balanced (3.6%), other (2.0%) and feeder funds (1.4%).

The net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 141.5m (a 0.04% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 0.2%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.