Croatia is among 12 European Union member states which generated a budget surplus in 2017, but it is also one of 15 EU countries with a debt-to-GDP ratio of more than 60 percent, according to data released by Eurostat on Monday.

Eurostat said Croatia had posted a general government budget surplus of 0.8 percent of GDP in 2017, after posting a 0.9 percent deficit in 2016. Its surplus was equal to that of Greece, also at 0.8 percent.

The largest budget surpluses were registered in Malta (3.9 percent), followed by Cyprus (1.8 percent), the Czech Republic (1.6 percent), Luxembourg (1.5 percent), Sweden and Germany (1.3 percent each), the Netherlands (1.1 percent), Denmark (1 percent) and Bulgaria (0.9 percent).

On the other end of the scale, the lowest budget deficits in terms of percentage of GDP were recorded in Ireland and Estonia (0.3 percent each), Latvia (0.5 percent) and Finland (0.6 percent). Two member states had deficits of 3 percent or more – Spain (3.1 percent) and Portugal (3 percent).

The EU28 collectively recorded a deficit of 1 percent of GDP, down from 1.6 percent in 2016.

Croatia had recorded a public debt-to-GDP ratio of 78 percent, which was 2.6 percentage points lower than in 2016.

Although the result is an improvement over preceding years, Croatia is still among 15 EU countries that had a debt-to-GDP ratio of 60 percent or more, which is the threshold set by the Maastricht criteria for the adoption of the euro.

The highest debt-to-GDP ratios were registered in Greece (178.6 percent), Italy (131.8 percent), Portugal (125.7 percent), Belgium (103.1 percent) and Spain (98.3 percent).

The lowest debt-to-GDP ratios were in Estonia (9.0 percent), Luxembourg (23.0 percent), Bulgaria (25.4 percent), the Czech Republic (34.6 percent), Romania (35.0 percent) and Denmark (36.4 percent).

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