The 2011 report analysed the dynamics of the wealth and debt of private households in 50 countries worldwide.
Switzerland remained at the top of the rankings with the gross per-capita financial assets of EUR 207,393, followed by the United States (EUR 111,897), Denmark (EUR 107,057) and the Netherlands (104,847).
The average financial assets per capita have more than doubled over the past decade. Thus Croatia has positioned itself among the five wealthiest countries in eastern Europe, alongside Slovenia, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, the Alliance insurance company said in a press release in Zagreb on Tuesday.
Croatia's average annual growth of 9.5 per cent is below the region's average of 16.3 per cent.
Eastern European households (region as a whole) have witnessed the strongest growth in per capita wealth over the past decade, with an average annual growth rate of more than 16%, reads the report.
"Eastern Europe also fared well on average in the face of the financial crisis and by the end of 2010, per capita assets were already up by one third on the pre-crisis level. Nevertheless, it is impossible to overlook the repercussions of the financial crisis. Ever since the crisis hit, the annual growth rate has been virtually sawn in half, from more than 19% before the crisis (average annual growth rate in the years 2000 to 2007) to around 10% after the crisis (average annual growth rate in the years 2007 to 2010)," reads the report.
The trend of focusing on security rather than on returns is now being observed across the globe. While securities have become much less popular among investors, bank deposits have upped their share of global financial assets.
In Croatia the share of bank deposits is traditionally high. In late 2010, it came to some 58 per cent, according to the press release. The growth of private debt has decelerated.
The debt of private households in Croatia, measured by their share in the GDP, has more or less stabilised above 40 per cent, the press release said.