For the first time since 2002, Croatia recorded a general government surplus in 2017, to the amount of 2.7 billion kuna (€364 million), with the debt-to-GDP ratio falling below 78 percent, the lowest level since 2012, according to data released by the national statistics bureau on Friday.

A report on the excessive budget deficit procedure and the general government debt, released on Friday, showed that in 2017 the consolidated general government surplus was 2.75 billion, or 0.8 percent of GDP, down from 3.2 billion or 0.9 percent of GDP in 2016.

This was the first general government surplus recorded since 2002, when this data category started to be collected. This is attributed to significantly better results posted by public companies, as well as an increase in tax income collected. The total taxes on manufacturing and imports collected amounted to 71.6 billion kuna (€9.7 billion) or 5.4 percent up from 2016.

On the other hand, the report said, investments fell to 9.8 billion kuna, or 13.1 percent down from 2016.

At the end of 2017, Croatia’s public debt reached 283.3 billion kuna (€38.2 billion), with the debt-to-GDP ratio falling to 78 percent, the lowest it has been since 2012, although the public debt had increased by 0.6 percent compared to 2016.

However, since GDP grew by 2.8 percent compared to 2016, outpacing the growth of public debt, the debt-to-GDP ratio also fell by 2.6 percentage points compared to 2016, when was 80.6 percent of GDP.

(€1 = 7.41 kuna)

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