The eighth edition of the Global Wealth Report, entitled "Recovery in Turbulent Times", put the asset and debt situation of households in more than 50 countries under the microscope.
"2016 was politically a very turbulent year, but private wealth shrugged it off: After a weaker 2015 (+4.7 percent), financial assets grew again by 7.1 percent last year, more or less matching the post-crisis average. Worldwide, financial assets climbed to a new record high of almost 170 trillion euros," the report says.
Croatia remained ranked 33rd like the previous year.
With a total of 9,100 euros of net financial assets per capita, Croatia positioned itself between two Baltic countries, Latvia and Lithuania, and in the middle of the ranking for the entire region of Eastern Europe, with the same number of countries above and below it, the report shows.
Net financial assets of Croatian households increased by 7.5% compared with the previous year, which is almost the same growth rate as that of EU member states from Eastern Europe (8%).
Allianz said this was due to increased debt reduction, given that last year Croatian households had managed to reduce their debts by 5.3%, while in the last five years, during which debt growth was always negative, debts had been cut by more than 10%.
This led to the debt ratio decreasing by 6 percentage points to 37%, which is still above the regional EU average of 33%. On the other hand, Croatian households recorded modest financial asset growth of 3.3% last year.
Of three asset categories -- bank deposits, securities, and insurance and pensions, only the latter recorded growth, of 8.9%, with insurance policies and pensions increasing to 25% of the household asset portfolio. Such a high percentage of household assets from insurance and pension funds is unique in Eastern Europe and is comparable to Western European countries such as Austria.
The United States dethroned Switzerland from the top spot, with the average value of financial assets of American households reaching 177,201 euros, up 5.8% over the previous year.
Switzerland was second with 175,720 euros (up 2.7%) and Japan finished third with 96,890 euros of net financial assets per capita, an increase of 1.8%.