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 third quarter of 2023, the financial assets of the Croatian economy stood at EUR 435bn (Figure 1), up by EUR 21.6bn in the quarter concerned and up by EUR 41.7bn in the period of one year. The financial liabilities of the Croatian economy stood at EUR 451bn, up by EUR 18.0bn in the quarter concerned and up by EUR 41.7bn in the period of one year. In terms of GDP, at the end of the third quarter of 2023, the financial assets of the Croatian economy amounted to 584% of the annual GDP, up by 10.4 percentage points in the quarter concerned and down by 15.0 percentage points in the period of one year. At the same time, the financial liabilities of the Croatian economy increased by 4.8 percentage points in the quarter concerned and decreased by 17.9 percentage points in the period of one year, accounting for 606% of the annual GDP at the end of the third quarter of 2023. These quarterly developments stopped the trend of a decrease of both the assets and liabilities of the Croatian economy in terms of GDP, due to strong GDP growth in the process of economic recovery from the crisis caused by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, so that the values of these indicators are now at the levels usual for the period before the second quarter of 2020.
At the end of the third quarter of 2023, the total financial assets and financial liabilities of households stood at EUR 87bn and EUR 24bn, respectively (Figure 2), which is an increase of 2.4% and 2.8% respectively from the end of the previous quarter, while in the period of one year, the financial assets of households increased by EUR 4.4bn, which is an increase of 5.4%, and the financial liabilities of households increased by EUR 1.8bn or 8.0%. As a result, the financial net worth of the households sector amounted to EUR 62.7bn or 2.2% more than at the end of the previous quarter (i.e. EUR 2.6bn or 4.4% 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.
At the end of the third quarter of 2023, the total financial assets of non-financial corporations stood at EUR 127bn (Figure 3), growing by 3.3% from the end of the previous quarter. The financial liabilities of non-financial corporations amounted to EUR 184bn or 2.2% more than at the end of the previous quarter. In line with such developments, the financial net worth of the non-financial corporations sector increased to –EUR 57bn, up by 0.2% from the end of the previous quarter.
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.). ↑