Financial accounts statistics for the first quarter of 2021

Published: 15/7/2021

Within the scope of financial accounts statistics[1], the Croatian National Bank currently releases only 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.

The financial assets of the Croatian economy stood at HRK 2,567bn at the end of the first quarter of 2021 (Figure 1), up by HRK 42bn in the quarter concerned and by HRK 174bn in the period of one year. The financial liabilities of the Croatian economy reached HRK 2,751bn, up by HRK 46bn in the quarter concerned and by HRK 162bn in the period of one year. In terms of GDP, the financial assets of the Croatian economy amounted to 690% of the annual GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2021, up by 10 percentage points in the quarter concerned and up by 99 percentage points in the period of one year. The financial liabilities of the Croatian economy grew by 11 percentage points in the quarter concerned and by 100 percentage points in the period of one year, accounting for 759% of the annual GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2021.

This marked a continued accelerated growth of stocks of assets and liabilities of the Croatian economy in terms of GDP, due to a continued increase in their nominal value, with unfavourable trends in the quarterly GDP, starting from the second quarter of 2020.

The total financial assets and financial liabilities of households stood at HRK 545bn and HRK 153bn respectively at the end of the first quarter of 2021 (Figure 2), which is an increase of 2% and 1.7% respectively from the end of the previous quarter. As a result, the financial net worth of the household sector amounted to HRK 392bn or 2.4% more than at the end of the previous quarter, continuing the trend of a gradual, albeit steady increase in the financial net worth of this sector.

The total financial assets of non-financial corporations stood at HRK 720bn at the end of the first quarter of 2021 (Figure 3), growing by 0.1% from the end of the previous quarter. The financial liabilities of non-financial corporations amounted to HRK 1,113bn 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 fell to –HRK 393bn, down 2.2% from the end of the previous quarter.

Statistical time series:

 


  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 and the Ministry of State Assets, 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.).