ZAGREB, 31 Aug, 2021 - Household deposits rose by 1.4% that is by 3.3 billion from June to July, and increased 8.4% on the year, according to the data released by the Croatian National Bank in its "Comments on monetary developments for July 2021" publication.

Total deposits in Croatia reached HRK 350.7 billion in July, going up by 8.5 billion kuna or 2.5% from June, and jumped by 31.1 billion kuna or 9.7% comapred to July 2020.

"The growth in total placements of monetary institutions to domestic sectors continued to accelerate in July, mirroring growing household lending, primarily in the form of housing loans that rose fuelled by the government subsidy programme. The placements to other financial institutions also rose, while placements to corporates fell," the HNB says in its comment.

"Total placements of monetary institution to domestic sectors (except the central government) rose in July by HRK 1.5bn or 0.6% (transaction-based) from June and stood at HRK 242.2bn at the end of the month. The annual growth rate of total placements accelerated from 3.8% in June to 4.1% in July. The monthly increase in placements was almost entirely due to the growth in loans which stood at HRK 236.5bn at the end of July," says the central bank.

Broken down by sectors, household loans rose the most (HRK 1.3bn or 1.0%) driven by the government subsidy programme, which continued to propel a strong growth in housing loans (HRK 1.1bn or 1.7%), while general-purpose cash loans continued to rise moderately (HRK 0.2bn or 0.4%).

On an annual level, the growth in housing loans continued to accelerate, having risen from 10.1% to 10.6% and so did the growth in general-purpose cash loans, which rose from 0.2% to 0.6%, resulting in an acceleration in the growth of total loans to households from 4.0% to 4.3%, the central bank reports.

(€1 = HRK 7.483066)

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ZAGREB, 3 Aug (Hina) - Total household loans in Croatia reached HRK 138.9 billion at the end of June 2021, increasing by HRK 4.2 billion from June 2020, according to the data provided by the Croatian National Bank (HNB).

The annual nominal household loan growth rate was 3.2%, picking up from 2.7% in May 2021, Raiffeisen Bank (RBA) said in its analysis of the central bank's data.

The share of kuna-denominated loans in total loans was 55%, the same as the month before.

Household credit claims increased by 1.9% or HRK 2.7 billion since the start of the year.

The annual household loan growth rate increased from 3.5% to 4%, with the growth of housing loans picking up from 9.7% to 10.1%. 

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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ZAGREB, 18 July, 2021 - At the end of the first quarter of 2021, Croatian citizens' financial assets totalled HRK 545.3 billion, up 8.4% on the year, according to central bank data.

Compared with the end of 2020, the increase was 2%.

Deposits make up half of financial assets

Deposits continued to dominate in household financial assets, exceeding HRK 271 billion and making up almost 50% of those assets, followed by insurance and pensions (over HRK 152 billion), and equity, shares and investment funds (over HRK 100 billion).

Financial liabilities HRK 153 bn

At the end of March 2021, household financial obligations totalled HRK 153 billion, up 2.5% from the end of March 2020 and 1.7% from the end of 2020.

Loans made up the lion's share of household financial obligations, reaching HRK 143.76 billion, up 1.7% from the end of March 2020.

These trends with assets and obligations resulted in an almost 11% annual increase in the financial net value of the household sector, to HRK 392 billion at the end of March 2021. Compared with the end of 2020, the increase was 2.4%, continuing the trend of a gradual but consistent increase.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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ZAGREB, 23 June, 2021 - Total household loans in Croatia reached HRK 137.5 billion at the end of April 2021, increasing by HRK 3.6 billion from April 2020, Raiffeisen Bank (RBA) said in its recent analysis of data provided by the Croatian National Bank (HNB).

The annual nominal household loan growth rate was 2.7%, picking up from 1.6% in March 2021.

The share of kuna-denominated loans in total loans was 55%, and the nominal amount of loans was affected by the euro-kuna exchange rate, which was 0.4% lower on an annual level and 0.1% lower on a monthly level.

Compared with December 2020, household credit claims in April 2021 increased by 1% or HRK 1.35 billion as a result of a rise in the nominal value of housing loans and the impact of housing subsidy schemes on them.

Housing loans accounted for 46.4% of total household loans, reaching HRK 63.8 billion, up by 1.61 billion from the end of 2020. The annual growth rate picked up from 8.3% in March to 9% in April.

On the other hand, general-purpose cash loans, despite a slight monthly rise of 0.2% to HRK 52.5 billion, were 1.4% lower than in April 2020, while increasing by 0.5% compared with the end of 2020.

RBA analysts expect that the rise in household loans will continue this year on the back of subsidised housing loans and the need for funding for the reconstruction of housing damaged in last year's earthquakes.

With the easing of COVID-19 restrictions and the acceleration of economic activity, there will be an increase in demand for cash loans, but this year it will be more modest than two-digit growth rates seen between mid-2018 and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, RBA said.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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ZAGREB, June 29, 2020 - Household loans totalled HRK 133.9 billion at the end of April 2020, breaking a month on month growing streak that had continued since the start of 2018, while the annual growth continued, according to data from the Croatian National Bank (HNB).

Household loans fell by 1.1% from March 2020 and rose by 4.8% compared with April 2019. The positive annual growth rates have been present since September 2017, showing a tendency to slow in 2020.

"Considering the dented optimism, expectations and deteriorations on the labour market, as well as a greater aversion to risk, we expect credit demand to weaken in the coming months due to new developments" triggered by the coronavirus crisis, Raiffeisen Bank (RBA) says in an analysis of the HNB data.

Analysed by currency structure, the share of loans denominated in the national currency, the kuna, remained at 54.4%, the same as in March. Kuna loans totalled HRK 72.9 billion, with the annual growth rate slowing to 8.2%. This broke their double-digit annual growth rates that had continued since November 2015.

Foreign currency-pegged loans reached HRK 61 billion, up by 1% from April 2019. Most of these loans were denominated in euro, and their growth was driven by foreign exchange movements as the euro exchange rate against the kuna increased by 1.9% compared with April last year.

By type of credit, the largest share (43.7%) accounted for housing loans, totalling HRK 58.5 billion and growing at an annual rate of 7.2%. This type of credit has been on the rise since November 2017. General-purpose cash loans rose at an annual rate of 6.4% in April, compared with a growth rate of 9.1% in March.