In October 2018 Croatia's public debt totalled 280.3 billion kuna (€37.8 billion), some 3.1 billion kuna (€417.8 million) or 1.1 percent down year-on-year. Analysts say that the debt-to-GDP ratio is likely to remain below 75 percent at the end of 2018 once data for November and December is released by the central bank.
Month-on-month, in October 2018 the country’s public debt inched down by 1.5 billion kuna (€202 million) or 0.5 percent compared to September.
The year-on-year decrease was recorded thanks to falls in both the external and the internal components of public debt. Year-on-year, the external component declined in october 2018 by 1.9 billion kuna (€256 million) or 1.8 percent, to 103.2 billion kuna (€13.9 billion), while the internal component dropped by 1.1 billion kuna (€148.2 million) or 0.6 percent, to 177.1 billion kuna (€23.9 billion).
General government guarantees issued on the domestic market reached 6.4 billion kuna (€862 million), including 2 billion kuna (€270 million) in guarantees for loans issued by the state-owned Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR), while general government guarantees issued on foreign markets totalled 5.3 billion kuna (€714 million).
Around 2.5 billion kuna (€337 million) of state-issued guarantees for Uljanik shipyard’s cancelled orders were paid out of the state budget on the last day of 2018, which the Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) analysts said would result in the deterioration of the general government budget balance.
Although the cost of paying for Uljanik’s loan guarantees are likely to be higher, as additional payments for interest are to follow, the overall trend in fiscal statistics is likely to remain favourable in the foreseeable future, RBA analysts said.
They predict that Croatia’s the public debt-to-GDP ratio would stay below 75 percent at the end of 2018, or about 9 percentage points down from its highest level recorded at the end of 2013.
(€1 = 7.42 kuna)
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