Regional differences in development of the investment funds industry in Serbia and Croatia

Abstract

This work, through comparative analysis, shows the differences in the degree of development of the Serbian and Croat investment funds sectors, but also points out at some of the important similarities. The comparison subjects are the types, number and structure of investments funds, and their assets value. Comparison is also made of the share of the open-end investment funds in the GDP of Serbia and Croatia respectively over the last ten years in order to provide the best illustration of the importance that this sector bears on the economies of the observed countries. The paper finds that Croatia, thanks to its earlier adoption of appropriate legal framework, better development of the capital market, voucher privatisation and privatisation investments funds, had gained advantage over Serbia when speaking of the importance and development level of the investment funds sector.