The Household Finance and Consumption Survey is a scientific survey on finances and consumption of households, and it constitutes a part of the project conducted every three years on a harmonised basis in euro area countries and some other countries of the European Union. The survey's methodological consistency is coordinated and ensured by the European Central Bank. The first survey wave was conducted in 2010 and 2011 in most countries, the second in 2013 and 2014 and the third wave in 2017 and 2018 (when the Croatian National Bank also joined the project). The fourth wave was conducted in 2020 and 2021 and the fifth wave of the survey will be carried out in 2023 and 2024.
The method used in the survey is CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview), which collects detailed information on social and economic characteristics of households, their assets, consumption, savings, income and debt. The fourth survey wave incorporates a small number of questions relating to the effect of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 on household finances and consumption, while the fifth one incorporates a similar number of questions relating to the effect of the change in energy prices on household finances and consumption.
The main aim of this survey is to collect microdata on the structure of household assets and liabilities that will be used to analyse different aspects of the conduct of monetary policy (e.g. transmission mechanism flows and aspects related to financial stability), financial behaviour of households, the effect of macroeconomic policy measures and potential macroeconomic shocks on that behaviour and, ultimately, for international comparisons.
Documents
Fifth wave of the survey 2023/2024
CNB Press Releases (20 September 2023): Household Finance and Consumption Survey
The HFCS questionnaire for 2023
Fourth wave of the survey 2020/2021
CNB Press Releases (1 September 2020): "Household Finance and Consumption Survey"
The HFCS questionnaire for 2020
Third wave of the survey 2017/2018
Jemrić, I.; Vrbanc, I. (2020): Republic of Croatia: Household Finance and Consumption Survey 2017, Statistical and Methodological Papers M-1, Croatian National Bank
Kunovac, M. (2020): Households' wealth distribution in Croatia, Working Papers I-57, Croatian National Bank,
extended abstract (EN)
full text (Croatian version)
Rosan, M.; Zauder, K. (2020): Which Loans do We Take? A Micro-Level Analysis of Croatian Households’ Debt Participation, Working Papers W-061, Croatian National Bank
The HFCS questionnaire for 2017 (Croatian version)
The European Central Bank (ECB) releases:
- The results of the fourth wave of the survey
- The results of the fourth wave of the survey, statistical tables
- The results of the third wave of the survey
- The results of the third wave of the survey, statistical tables
- The results of the second wave of the survey
- The results of the first wave of the survey