May 2025 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of May 2025, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,357,350 members, i.e., 2,680 (0.11%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 76.5% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 19.7% and 3.8% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 5,339 new members, 5,126 (96.0%) were automatically assigned by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 2,659 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in May amounted to EUR 143.5m (0.6% of net assets at end-April). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 52.8m (0.2% of net assets at end-April), rising by EUR 21.5m compared to the previous month.

At the end of May 2025, MPFs’ net assets amounted to EUR 24.3bn, rising by EUR 432.3m (1.8%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 3.06% for category A, 1.53% for category B and 0.14% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 13.34% for category A, 8.77% for category B and 4.00% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 7.95% for Mirex A, 5.42% for Mirex B and 3.34% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of May, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 14.0bn (57.5% of total assets), making their share decrease by 1.2 p.p. on a monthly basis. The share of equity investments in MPFs’ assets increased by 0.1 p.p. on a monthly basis, amounting to 23.3% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 5.7bn) at the end of May. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 13.9%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 9.4% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.4bn (10.0% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets increase by 0.3 p.p. relative to the previous month. Cash and deposits amounted to 6.5% of the assets, or EUR 1.6bn, increasing by 0.2 p.p. on a monthly basis.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of May 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 0.1%, making the number of members of these funds reach 427,406 and 50,210 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in May 2025 amounted to EUR 9.6m (0.7% of net assets at end-April), decreasing by 12.4% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 4.4m in May, decreasing by 23.2% on a monthly basis. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 71.8%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 23.4%, while those made due to death accounted for 4.9% of total payments in May. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.7m was paid through a pension company (fund), EUR 0.9m 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 May, net assets of VPFs increased by EUR 23.1m (1.6% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.49bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from 0.1% to 3.1%, while returns on an annual basis ranged from 2.6% to 11.6%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 52.9% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 26.1% share and investment funds with a 10.3% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments decreased on a monthly basis by 0.7 p.p., while the equity share rose by 0.5 p.p., and the share of investments in investment funds increased by 0.2 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In May 2025, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first five months of 2025 amounted to EUR 844.0m, i.e., 8.7% more that in the same period in 2024. EUR 133.3m (15.8%) of this amount related to life insurance premium (0.4% less than in the same period last year), while EUR 710.7m (84.2%) related to non-life insurance premium (10.5% more at an annual level). The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (35.5%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (19.5%), insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.2%) and health insurance (9.0%).

The amount of claims settled in the first five months of 2025 reached EUR 505.0m, decreasing by 8.6% compared to same period in 2024. EUR 151.5m (30.0%) of this amount related to life insurance (29.9% less at an annual level), while EUR 353.5m (70.0%) related to non-life insurance (5.0% 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 (40.7%), insurance of road vehicles (21.2%), health insurance (12.4%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.3%).

CAPITAL MARKET

In May 2025, the total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 67.2m, decreasing by 15.2% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 1.3% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 52.5bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 29.7bn, bonds to EUR 19.2bn, money market instruments to EUR 3.6bn and ETFs to 86m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (15.3%) was recorded by CROBEXkonstrukt, while CROBEXtransport recorded the largest monthly decline (-1.8%). The main ZSE stock index CROBEX recorded a monthly increase of 5.0%, as did CROBEXtr. Both bond indices recorded a monthly increase: CROBIS 0.2% and CROBIStr 0.4%. KONČAR d.d. was the stock most traded in May, with its turnover amounting to EUR 9.6m (24.2% of the overall trade in stocks in May) and a 9.6% monthly price increase.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

At the end of May 2025, there were 118 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 3.6bn, increasing by EUR 47.4m or 1.3% compared to the previous month. Total monthly net payments to UCITS in May were positive, amounting to EUR 63.6m. Positive net payments were recorded by money market funds (EUR 40.5m), equity funds (EUR 20.9m), funds categorised as “other” (EUR 1.7m), feeder funds (EUR 0.8m) and balanced funds (EUR 0.08m), while negative net payments were recorded by bond funds (EUR -0.5m).

Money market funds’ net assets accounted for 30.7% of the total net assets of all UCITS at the end of May, bond funds made up 23.1%, funds categorised as “other” 19.6%, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 16.2% and 7.9% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In May, all fund categories recorded positive asset-weighted average monthly returns, namely: equity funds (5.4%), feeder funds (3.2%), balanced funds (2.1%), “other” funds (0.6%), money market funds (0.1%) and bond funds (0.1%).

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 225.4m (a 3.5% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 3.8%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.