At the end of August, total deposits in Croatia amounted to HRK 359bn, up by 11.3% YoY.

According to the consolidated statement of financial position for monetary financial institutions which is monthly published by the Croatian National Bank (HNB), total deposits as of end-August 2021 amounted to HRK 359bn, representing a solid increase of 11.3% YoY, while increasing 2.4% MoM. This amount represents once again an all-time high. The high level of deposits continued to see a positive trend despite the reopening of the economy and the relaxation of Covid-19 related measures.

This increase can be attributed to a high increase of 22.6% YoY in demand deposits, reaching HRK 147.6bn, which accounts for 41%. As the end of August 2021, total savings deposits amounted to HRK 211.4bn, representing an increase of 4.5% YoY and +3.2% MoM.  In the local currency savings deposits, one can note a decrease of as much as 4.5% MoM, reaching HRK 32.2bn.

Foreign currency savings amounted to HRK 179.16bn, a 3.9% increase YoY. To put things into a perspective, total saving deposits at the end of August 2021 were 15% in the local currency and 85% in foreign currency.

When observing solely households, they hold HRK 238.3bn or 66% of total deposits up by 0.95% MoM.

Deposits breakdown (HRK bn)

According to the Croatian National Tourist Board, in the first 9 months of 2021, Croatia has witnessed 12.59m tourist arrivals and 80.04m tourist nights.

In the first nine months 2021, Croatia recorded 12.59m tourist arrivals, which represents an increase of 70.52% YoY. Such a result stands at 67% of pre-pandemic period (Jan – Sep 2019). Meanwhile, tourist nights amounted to 80.04m, which represents a 52.65% increase YoY. Compared to 2019, tourist nights stand at 78% (Jan – Sep). We note that 86% of nights realized come from foreign tourists. Of that, tourists from Germany lead with 25.4% (or 20.3m) of total nights realized, followed by tourists from Slovenia (10.78%).

The largest number of tourist nights (22.7m) was registered in Istria County, ahead of Split-Dalmatia County (14.8m) and Kvarner (14.7m). The most popular destinations by number of nights were Rovinj (607k), Poreč (437k), Dubrovnik (380k) and Medulin (332k).

When observing the type of accommodation, the largest portion of nights realized was recorded in private accommodation (38.92%), followed by camps (21.21%) and hotels (17.38%).  To be specific, hotels noted an increase in nights spent by 111.9% and an increase in arrivals by 95.3%. The average nights spent in hotels in the first 9 months stood at 4.1 compared to 3.8 in the same period of the previous year.