November 2024 Monthly Report

PENSION FUNDS

SECOND PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of November 2024, mandatory pension funds (MPFs) had 2,327,961 members, or 6,106 (0.26%) members more than in the previous month. Category B funds had 77.8% of all MPF members, while category A and category C funds had 18.1% and 4.1% of all MPF members respectively. Out of 8,225 new members, 7,961 (96.8%) were automatically allocated by Regos. Termination of membership due to retirement or death was recorded with respect to 2,119 insured persons. Total net contributions paid to MPFs in November amounted to EUR 131.0m (0.6% of net assets at end-October). At the same time, total payments from all MPFs due to personal account closures reached EUR 47.5m (0.2% of net assets at end-October), falling by EUR 0.5m compared to the previous month.

At the end of November 2024, net assets of MPFs amounted to EUR 23.1bn, rising by EUR 394.6m (1.7%) relative to the previous month. Nominal monthly Mirex returns reached 1.5% for category A, 1.5% for category B and 0.4% for category C. Annual Mirex returns reached 15.8% for category A, 11.8% for category B and 4.8% for category C. Year-to-date returns reached 13.0% for category A, 9.3% for category B and 3.2% for category C, while annualised^[1] returns since the beginning of MPFs’ operation reached 7.8% for Mirex A, 5.4% for Mirex B and 3.4% for Mirex C^[2].

At the end of November, bond investments of MPFs totalled EUR 14.0bn (60.5% of total assets), making their share decrease by 0.3 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 23.0% of MPFs’ assets (EUR 5.3bn) at the end of November 2024. Investments in domestic shares accounted for 14.1%, while investments in foreign shares accounted for 8.9% of MPFs’ assets. Investments in investment funds amounted to EUR 2.4bn (10.6% of the assets), making the proportion of these investments in total assets increase by 0.3 p.p. relative to the previous month. Investments in cash and deposits amounted to 3.8% of the assets, or EUR 886.1m.

THIRD PILLAR PENSION FUNDS

At the end of November 2024, the number of members of 8 open-ended voluntary pension funds (OVPFs) rose by 0.4% on a monthly basis, as did the number of members of 21 closed-ended voluntary pension funds (CVPFs), making the number of members of these funds reach 414,028 and 49,337 respectively. Total monthly payments made to voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in November 2024 amounted to EUR 12.3m (0.9% of net assets at end-October), increasing by 21.0% compared to the previous month. Total payments made from these funds reached EUR 4.4m, as in the previous month. Total payments from VPFs made due to retirement and other reasons accounted for 75.1%, payments made due to the change of fund reached 19.7%, while those made due to death accounted for 5.2% of total payments in November. As regards total payments made due to retirement, the amount of EUR 1.5m was paid through a pension company (fund), the amount of EUR 0.8m was paid in the form of lump-sum payments, while the amount of EUR 1.0m was transferred for payment to pension insurance companies.

In November 2024, net assets of VPFs increased by EUR 20.8m (1.5% on a monthly basis) and stood at EUR 1.4bn. Monthly nominal returns of VPFs ranged from 0.4% to 1.5%, returns on an annual basis ranged from 3.9% to 15.4%, while year-to-date returns ranged from 3.1% to 12.4%. As regards the investment structure of VPFs, the largest part of the portfolio was made up of bonds and amounted to a 55.6% share in total net assets, followed by stocks with a 25.5% share and investment funds with a 10.5% share. The share of bonds in VPFs’ investments decreased on the monthly basis by 0.7 p.p., the equity share fell by 0.1 p.p., while the share of investments in investment funds increased by 0.4 p.p.

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In November 2024, there were 14 insurance companies operating on the market. The total premium collected in the first eleven months of 2024 amounted to EUR 1.7bn, of which EUR 295.4m (17.0%) related to life insurance premium and EUR 1.4bn (83.1%) to non-life insurance premium. The structure of the non-life insurance premium collected is dominated by motor vehicle liability insurance (36.5%), followed by insurance of road vehicles (18.8%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (9.2%). The value of claims settled in the first eleven months of 2024 reached EUR 1.1bn. EUR 394.3m (34.7%) of this amount related to life insurance, while EUR 743.4m (65.3%) 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 (39.9%), insurance of road vehicles (21.5%), other property insurance lines (9.7%), and insurance against fire and natural disasters (8.7%).

CAPITAL MARKET

In November 2024, the total turnover on the Zagreb Stock Exchange reached EUR 37.7m, decreasing by 39.1% on a monthly basis. Market capitalisation increased by 0.2% relative to the previous month and stood at EUR 48.4bn, of which stocks amounted to EUR 28.0bn, bonds to EUR 18.4bn, money market instruments to EUR 1.9bn and ETFs to EUR 74m. As regards sectoral stock indices, the largest monthly growth (1.3%) was recorded by CROBEXnutris, while CROBEXtransports recorded the largest monthly decline (-3.6%). The main ZSE stock index CROBEX and CROBEXtr also recorded a monthly increase (of 3.2%). The CROBIS bond index recorded a 0.1% monthly increase, while CROBIStr rose by 0.3%. KONČAR d.d. was the stock most traded in November, with its turnover amounting to EUR 2.9m (13.2% of the overall trade in stocks in November) and a 1.0% monthly price decrease.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

In November 2024, there were 117 UCITS operating on the market. Total net assets of UCITS amounted to EUR 3.2bn at the end of the month, increasing by EUR 160.5m or 5.3% compared to the previous month. Total monthly payments of all UCITS in November were positive, amounting to EUR 127.2m. Positive net payments were recorded by all fund types, namely: money market funds (EUR 82.1m), “other” funds (EUR 33.0m), equity funds (EUR 7.1m), balanced funds (EUR 2.3m), bond funds (EUR 2.0m) and feeder funds (HRK 0.7m). Bond funds’ net assets accounted for 27.0% of all UCITS’ net assets at the end of November, funds categorised as “other” accounted for 25.0%, while equity and balanced funds accounted for 16.0% and 9.1% of the total UCITS’ net assets respectively. In November 2024, all fund categories recorded positive asset-weighted average monthly returns, namely: feeder funds (2.6 %), balanced funds (2.2%), equity funds (0.8%), “other” funds (0.7%), bond funds (0.3%) and money market funds (0.2%). At the end of November 2024, the asset-weighted average annual returns stood at 22.1% for equity funds, 12.7% for feeder funds, 10.7% for balanced funds, 6.1% for “other” funds and 4.1% for bond funds.

Net assets of the Fund for Croatian Homeland War Veterans and Members of their Families amounted to EUR 213.4m at the end of November (an 8.9% monthly increase), with the monthly return of the fund reaching 9.1%.

The full report is available at Statistics/Monthly reports.