May 2024 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of May 2024, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,272,137 members, i.e. 3,869 (0.17%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 80.0% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 15.4% and 4.6% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 5,919 new members, 5,768 (97.5%) were automatically assigned by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 2,056 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in May amounted to EUR 127.3m (0.6% of net assets at end-April). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 37.0m (0.2% of net assets at end-April), rising by EUR 11.9m compared to the previous month.

At the end of May 2024, net assets of MPFs amounted to EUR 21.4bn, rising by EUR 230.6m (1.1%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 1.3% for category A, 0.7% for category B and 0.4% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 13.9% for category A, 10.1% for category B and 3.9% for category C. Year-to-date returns reached 5.3% for category A, 3.5% for category B and 0.7% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 7.4% for Mirex A, 5.3% for Mirex B and 3.3% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of May, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 13.2bn (61.7% of total assets), making their share increase by 0.1 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets decreased by 0.1 p.p. on a monthly level, amounting to 23.1% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 4.9bn) at the end of May 2024. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 13.7%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.4% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.2bn (10.2% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets increase by 0.1 p.p. relative to the previous month. Investments in cash and deposits amounted to 4.3% of the assets, or EUR 924.5m.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of May 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 0.03%, making the number of members of these funds reach 404,866 and 48,980 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in May 2024 amounted to EUR 9.5m (0.7% of net assets at end-April), while total payments made from these funds reached EUR 4.5m (0.3% of net assets at end-April). Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 67.9%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 25.6%, while those made due to death accounted for 6.5% of total payments in May. With respect to total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.4m was paid through a pension company (fund), EUR 1.0m were paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 0.7m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

In May 2024, net assets of VPFs increased by EUR 12.0m (0.9% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.3bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from 0.4% to 1.0%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 3.5% to 16.6%. VPFs’ year-to-date returns ranged from 0.7% to 6.6%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 55.4% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 25.9% share and investment funds with a 10.1% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments increased on the monthly basis by 0.5 p.p., the equity share fell by 0.1 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds increased by 0.1 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In May 2024, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first five months of 2024 amounted to EUR 776.7m, of which EUR 133.8m (17.2%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 642.9m (82.8%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (36.9%), followed by insurance of land vehicles (18.9%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.2%). The amount of claims settled in the first five months of 2024 reached EUR 552.6m. EUR 216.0m (39.1%) of this amount relates to life insurance, while EUR 336.7m (60.9%) 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 (41.3%), insurance of land motor vehicles (21.8%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.7%).

CAPITAL MARKET

The total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 30.1m in May 2024, increasing by 12.8% on a monthly level. Market capitalisation increased by 1.2% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 44.9bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 25.1bn, bonds to EUR 18.0bn, money market instruments to EUR 1.9bn and ETFs to 41m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (9.4%) was recorded by CROBEXkonstrukt, while CROBEX10 recorded the largest monthly decline (1.7%). The main stock index of the ZSE (CROBEX) recorded a minimum monthly decrease (0.01%), while CROBEXtr recorded a monthly growth (0.6%). Bond index CROBIS recorded a monthly decrease (0.1%), while CROBIStr recorded an increase (0.1%). HT d.d. was the stock most traded in May, with its turnover amounting to EUR 2.95m (15.1% of the overall trade in stocks in May) and a 1.96% monthly price decrease.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In May 2024, there were 111 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 2.7bn at the end of the month, increasing by EUR 61.5m or 2.4% compared to the previous month. Total monthly payments of all UCITS in May were positive, amounting to EUR 25.0m. Negative net payments were recorded by feeder funds (EUR -0.16m), bond funds (EUR -0.21m) and funds categorised as “other” (EUR -0.24m). Positive net payments were recorded by balanced funds (EUR 0.5m), equity funds (EUR 1.9m) and money market funds (EUR 23.1m).

Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 35.9% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of May, funds categorised as “other” accounted for 26.8%, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 16.4% and 5.9% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In May 2024, all types of UCITS recorded positive asset-weighted average monthly returns, equity funds (2.3%), feeder funds (1.6%), other funds (0.5%), balanced funds (0.8%), money market funds (0.3%) and bond funds (0.4%). At the end of May 2024, the asset-weighted average annual returns stood at 23.9% for equity funds, 7.3% for balanced funds, 5.1% for funds categorised as “other”, 8.6% for feeder funds and 2.7% for bond funds.

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 168.0m (a 2.5% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 2.7%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.