Within the scope of financial accounts statistics^[1], the Croatian National Bank publicly releases data on stocks of financial assets and liabilities of the entire economy and individual institutional sectors – non-financial corporations, households, general government and financial sector, in a certain period. Financial net worth of the economy or any part thereof is calculated as the difference between the stocks of its financial assets (e.g. loans and deposits granted, investments in securities and holdings) and the stocks of its financial liabilities (e.g. loans and deposits received, inflows from the issued securities), with the total financial liabilities including debt liabilities, as well as the estimated financial worth of capital.

At the end of the second quarter of 2024, the financial assets of the Croatian economy stood at EUR 462bn (Figure 1), up by EUR 6.3bn in the quarter concerned and up by EUR 35.0bn in the period of one year. The financial liabilities of the Croatian economy stood at EUR 485bn, up by EUR 6.8bn in the quarter concerned and by EUR 33.8bn in the period of one year. In terms of GDP, at the end of the second quarter of 2024, the financial assets of the Croatian economy amounted to 564% of the annual GDP, down by 5.3 percentage points in the quarter concerned and down by 21.5 percentage points in the period of one year. At the same time, the financial liabilities of the Croatian economy decreased by 5.4 percentage points in the quarter concerned and by 26.6 percentage points in the period of one year, accounting for 593% of the annual GDP at the end of the second quarter of 2024. These quarterly developments continued the downward trend in both assets and liabilities of the Croatian economy in terms of GDP due to a slower increase in their value compared to the growth of quarterly GDP.

Figure 1 Financial assets and financial liabilities of the Croatian economy

At the end of the second quarter of 2024, the total financial assets and financial liabilities of households stood at EUR 100bn and EUR 27bn, respectively (Figure 2), which is an increase of 2.8% and 3.1% respectively from the end of the previous quarter, while in the period of one year, the financial assets of households increased by EUR 10.0bn which is an increase of 11.1% and the financial liabilities of households increased by EUR 2.7bn or 11.1%. As a result, the financial net worth of the households sector amounted to EUR 73.7bn or 2.7% more than at the end of the previous quarter (i.e. EUR 7.4bn or 11.1% more than at the end of the same quarter of the previous year). Thus, the households sector's net worth continued the gradual increase that began in the second quarter of 2022.

Figure 2 Financial assets and liabilities of the households sector^[2]

At the end of the second quarter of 2024, the total financial assets of non-financial corporations stood at EUR 135bn (Figure 3), growing by 1.3% from the end of the previous quarter. The financial liabilities of non-financial corporations amounted to EUR 206bn or 1.7% more than at the end of the previous quarter. In line with such developments, the financial net worth of the non-financial corporations sector decreased to –EUR 71.0bn, down by 2.3% from the end of the previous quarter.

Figure 3 Financial assets and liabilities of the non-financial corporations sector

Statistical time series: Financial accounts

1. Financial accounts statistics shows the indicators of stocks, transactions, valuation adjustments and other changes in financial assets and liabilities in the economy, classified by sectors and by financial instruments, on the basis of the currently available data sources. These include the CNB's monetary statistics and external statistics, statistical reports of the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency, annual reports of non-financial corporations collected by the Financial Agency, reports on general government equity holdings in corporations by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets and Restructuring and Sale Centre, data on general government debt by the Ministry of Finance and the CNB, as well as the Zagreb Stock Exchange trading reports. ↑

2. Apart from households, the households sector also includes non-profit institutions serving households sector (associations of citizens, etc.). ↑