At the end of the first quarter of 2018, Croatia's public debt totalled 281.3 billion kuna (€38.1 million), or 76.2 percent of its GDP, which was 6.4 percentage points down from the same period in the year before, according to data released by the EU's statistics bureau Eurostat on Friday.

The figures put Croatia among EU countries with the largest annual drop in the public debt-to-GDP ratio.

Compared to the last quarter of 2017, Croatia’s public debt dropped by 2 billion kuna (€271 million), and its debt-to-GDP ratio fell by 1.2 percentage points.

At the end of Q1 2018, the consolidated public debt of EU28 countries accounted for 81.5 percent of their GDP, or 2.1 percentage points down from Q1 2017. In the euro zone, the public debt-to-GDP was 86.8 percent, or 2.4 percentage points down from Q1 2017.

Greece had the highest public debt-to-GDP ratio, at 180.4 percent, followed by Italy, with 133.4 percent, and Portugal, with 126.4 percent.

The lowest debt-to-GDP ratio was reported by Estonia, 8.7 percent, followed by Luxembourg, with 22.2 percent, and Bulgaria, with 24.1 percent.

Compared to Q1 2017, only Greece recorded an increase in the share of public debt in GDP in Q1 2018, of 2.7 percentage points.

All other EU member countries saw a drop in their debt-to-GDP ratios, with Cyprus reporting the greatest decline, of 11.3 percentage points, followed by Ireland, by 6.5, Croatia, by 6.4, Malta, by 6.2, and Slovenia, by 5.3 percentage points.

According to Eurostat’s seasonally adjusted data on the EU28 budget deficit, at the end of Q1 2018 it accounted for 0.5 percent of GDP, and in the euro zone its share in GDP was 0.1 percent.

The share of the budget deficit in GDP thus dropped in relation to the same period of 2017, going down in the EU by 0.6 percentage points, and in the euro zone by 1 percentage point.

Romania had the highest budget deficit, accounting for 4.2 percent of GDP, while the biggest budget surpluses were reported in the Netherlands and in Malta, with 2.5 percent of GDP each, and Germany and Bulgaria, with 2.4 percent of GDP each.

(€1 = 7.38 kuna)

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