The net assets of mandatory pension funds stood at 132.5 billion kuna (€17.6 billion) at the end of August 2022, or 3 percent up year-on-year, according to a report released by the state financial agency Fina on Wednesday.

In the first half of the year, the prices of shares and bonds held by Croatian pension funds on international markets fell due to market shocks in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Net assets of the Croatian mandatory pension funds fell by 3.1 billion kuna in February, but their value partly rebounded in March, increasing by 2.1 billion kuna month-on-month, before dropping again, by 717.8 million kuna in April, by 515.3 million kuna in May and by 1.8 billion kuna in June.

At the end of August, the mandatory pension funds had 2,150,492 members, or 3 percent up from August 2021 when they had 2,088,425  members.

Total net contributions to the mandatory pension funds reached 705.4 million kuna in August, 1.1 percent down from July, and monthly disbursements dropped by 12.7 percent month-on-month to 156.3 million kuna.

The structure of assets held by mandatory pension funds reported by Fina showed that bond continue to be their main form of investment, with 85.7 billion kuna (€11.4 billion) held in bonds, accounting for close to 65 percent of their assets. Another 21 percent, valued at 27 billion kuna (€3.6 billion) was held in various company stocks, and another 14.1 billion kuna (€1.8 billion) was in shares of investment funds, which accounted for close to 11 percent of their total assets.

At the end of August, eight open-ended voluntary pension funds and 20 closed-ended voluntary pension funds operated in Croatia. The open-ended funds had 366,135 members and the closed-ended ones had 46,739 members.

The net assets of the voluntary pension funds reached 7.7 billion kuna, or 5.4 percent up from 7.3 billion year-on-year. Bonds accounted for 56 percent of their total net assets, followed by stocks (25 percent) and investment funds (10.5 percent).

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)