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 fourth quarter of 2023, the financial assets of the Croatian economy stood at EUR 444bn (Figure 1), up by EUR 9.1bn in the quarter concerned and up by EUR 40.9bn in the period of one year. The financial liabilities of the Croatian economy stood at EUR 460bn, up by EUR 9.1bn in the quarter concerned and by EUR 40.1bn in the period of one year. In terms of GDP, at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, the financial assets of the Croatian economy amounted to 580% of the annual GDP, up by 0.2 percentage points in the quarter concerned and down by 8.9 percentage points in the period of one year. At the same time, the financial liabilities of the Croatian economy decreased by 0.3 percentage points in the quarter concerned and decreased by 12.6 percentage points in the period of one year, accounting for 602% of the annual GDP at the end of the fourth quarter of 2023. These quarterly developments flattened the trend of increase of both assets and liabilities of the Croatian economy in terms of GDP.
Figure 1 Financial assets and financial liabilities of the Croatian economy
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, the total financial assets and financial liabilities of households stood at EUR 89bn and EUR 25bn, respectively (Figure 2), which is an increase of 2.5% and 2.0% respectively from the end of the previous quarter, while in the period of one year, the financial assets of households increased by EUR 6,2bn which is an increase of 7.4% and the financial liabilities of households increased by EUR 2.1bn or 9.5%. As a result, the financial net worth of the households sector amounted to EUR 64.4bn or 2.7% more than at the end of the previous quarter (i.e. EUR 4.0bn or 6.7% 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 shortly after the end of the period of accelerated growth that lasted from the second quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2021.
Figure 2 Financial assets and liabilities of the households sector[2]
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, the total financial assets of non-financial corporations stood at EUR 129bn (Figure 3), growing by 1.0% from the end of the previous quarter. The financial liabilities of non-financial corporations amounted to EUR 185bn or 0.8% more than at the end of the previous quarter. In line with such developments, the financial net worth of the non-financial corporations sector slightly decreased to –EUR 56.3bn, down by 0.1% from the end of the previous quarter.
Figure 3 Financial assets and liabilities of the non-financial corporations sector
Statistical time series: Financial accounts
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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, 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. ↑
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Apart from households, the households sector also includes non-profit institutions serving households sector (associations of citizens, etc.). ↑