February 2025 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of February 2025, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,344,224 members, or 4,809 (0.21%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 77.1% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 18.9% and 4.0% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 6,018 new members, 5,868 (97.5%) were automatically assigned by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 1,209 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in February amounted to EUR 135.4m (0.6% of net assets at end-January). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 27.4m (0.1% of net assets at end-January), falling by EUR 4.2m compared to the previous month.

At the end of February 2025, MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 24.0bn, rising by EUR 152.9m (0.6%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 0.23% for category A, 0.19% for category B and 0.39% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 14.46% for category A, 10.24% for category B and 3.98% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 8.02% for Mirex A, 5.47% for Mirex B and 3.36% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of February, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 14.6bn (60.9% of total assets), making their share increase by 1.3 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets decreased by 0.4 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 24.0% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 5.8bn) at the end of February. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 14.4%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.6% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.4bn (10.2% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets decrease by 0.3 p.p. relative to the previous month. Cash and deposits amounted to 3.4% of the assets, or EUR 817.9m, decreasing by 0.6 p.p. on a monthly basis.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of February 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 0.2%, making the number of members of these funds reach 421,130 and 49,726 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in February 2025 amounted to EUR 11.5m (0.8% of net assets at end-January), decreasing by 10.5% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 6.4m in February, decreasing by 11.9% on a monthly basis. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 70.8%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 25.7%, while those made due to death accounted for 3.5% of total payments in February. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.7m was paid through a pension company (fund), EUR 1.1m were transferred for payment to pension insurance companies, while EUR 1.7m were paid in the form of lump-sum payments. In February 2025, VPFs’ net assets increased by EUR 5.1m (0.3% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.49bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from -0.5% to +1.3%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 3.5% to 13.5%. 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 25.8% share and investment funds with a 10.6% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments increased on the monthly basis by 1.2 p.p., the equity share fell by 0.3 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds increased by 0.1 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In February 2025, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first two months of 2025 amounted to EUR 312.2m, i.e. 8.8% more that in the same period in 2024. EUR 48.2m (15.4%) of this amount related to life insurance premium (1.1% less than in the same period last year), while EUR 264.0m (84.6%) related to non-life insurance premium (10.8% more on an annual level). The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (35.1%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (19.5%), insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.6%) and other property insurance lines (8.1%). The amount of claims settled in the first two months of 2025 reached EUR 191.7m, decreasing by 12.9% compared to the first two months of 2024. EUR 53.6m (28.0%) of this amount related to life insurance (37.3% less on an annual level), while EUR 138.1m (72.0%) related to non-life insurance (2.7% more 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 (42.5%), insurance of road vehicles (20.8%), health insurance (11.4%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (7.7%).

CAPITAL MARKET

In February 2025, the total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 43.7m, decreasing by 40.4% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation decreased by 5.0% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 50.0bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 24.9bn, bonds to EUR 18.0bn, money market instruments to EUR 2.5bn and ETFs to EUR 81m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (1.1%) was recorded by CROBEXtransport, while CROBEXkonstrukt recorded the largest monthly decline (-8.2%). The main ZSE stock index CROBEX recorded a monthly decrease of 4.2%, same as CROBEXtr. The CROBIS bond index recorded a monthly decrease (0.1%), while CROBIStr recorded an increase (0.1%). KONČAR d.d. was the stock most traded in February, with its turnover amounting to EUR 6.4m (19.7% of the overall trade in stocks in February) and a 8.3% monthly price decrease.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

At the end of February 2025, there were 117 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 3.4bn, increasing by EUR 74.3m or 2.2% compared to the previous month. Total monthly net payments to UCITS in February were positive, amounting to EUR 89.8m. Positive net payments were recorded by money market funds (EUR 77.4m), equity funds (EUR 16.6m), balanced funds (EUR 2.0m) and feeder funds (EUR 1.3m), while negative net payments were recorded by bond funds (EUR -2.3m) and funds categorised as “other” (-5.2m).

Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 24.6% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of February, money market funds 23.6%, funds categorised as “other” 22.6%, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 17.4% and 8.9% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In February 2025, all types of UCITS, except feeder funds, recorded positive asset-weighted average monthly returns, namely equity funds (0.7%), bond funds (0.5%), “other” funds (0.4%), balanced funds (0.2%) and money market funds (0.2%). Feeder funds had negative asset-weighted average monthly returns (-0.5%).

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 227.2m (a 2.4% monthly decrease), with the monthly return of the fund reaching -2.2%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.