At the end of 2018, Croatia's gross foreign debt stood at €38.8 billion, 1.4 billion less than at the end of 2017, according to figures released by the Croatian central bank.

According to revised data, the trend of foreign deleveraging of domestic sectors continued in 2018, with the gross foreign debt-to-GDP ratio decreasing to 75.1 percent at the end of the year, down 7 percent from the end of 2017, Raiffeisenbank Austria analysts said.

Compared with November 2018, the foreign debt was 1.6 percent lower as a result of the the central bank’s reduced indebtedness and reduced liabilities of other domestic sectors and direct investments.

The data for December 2018 showed that the foreign debt has been decreasing year on year since the end of 2015.

The foreign debt was mostly reduced because of the reduced indebtedness of the public sector. The general government’s gross foreign debt at the end of 2018 stood at €13.7 billion, down 5.6 percent on the year.

The foreign debt decrease was also a result of the continued deleveraging of other domestic sectors, whose gross foreign debt at the end of 2018 dropped to €13.3 billion.