At the end of August 2018, Croatia’s gross foreign debt amounted to €38.6 billion, which is €134 million or 2.5 percent less than in August 2017, and at its lowest level since October 2008, Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) analysts said on Friday.

The drop was mostly due to the decreasing of the debt of other financial institutions, domestic sectors, and the central bank’s foreign debt, the analysts said.

Gross foreign debt of other domestic sectors amounted to €1.8 billion, down 5.5 percent compared to August 2017, while general government gross foreign debt was up 2.9 percent on the year, amounting to €13.8 billion in August 2018.

The analysts said they expected foreign debt to continue decreasing across all key sectors.

Since foreign debt is falling, and GDP is growing, the foreign debt-to-GDP ratio has been dropping for a while, analysts said, adding they expected the trend to continue in the coming years as well.

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