In 2018 Croatia's government handed out a total of €2 billion (14.8 billion kuna) in various forms of state aid, or 18.8 percent up from 2017. The sharp increase was largely thanks to the cost of covering state-issued bank guarantees enforced for undelivered projects by the nearly bankrupt Uljanik and 3. Maj shipyards, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric told a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Maric said that the cost of those guarantees totalled 2.5 billion kuna (€338 million) last year. Aid for farming and fishing stood at 6.2 billion kuna (€839 million), while state aid for “industry and services” amounted to 8.7 billion kuna (€1.2 billion).

He added that state aid continued to increase and that more should be allocated for “horizontal aid,” in line with goals set out by the European Commission in 2012.

According to the comprehensive report on state aid in 2018, last year some 3.3 billion kuna (€446 million) was allocated for so-called “horizontal state aid,” including 2.06 billion kuna (€279 million) for “research, development and innovation, environmental protection and energy conservation, SMEs, employment and culture.”

Another 856.6 million kuna (€116 million) was spent on “regional” and another 422.9 million (€57.2 million) for “local” aid, state agency Hina helpfully reported.

The government also has a category called “small value aid,” on which the some 1.06 billion kuna (€143 million) was spent, including 926.6 million kuna (€125 million) on various subsidies.

According to government figures, state aid had steadily increased over the past three years, from 11.42 billion kuna (€1.54 billion) in 2016 to 12.47 billion kuna (€1.69 billion) in 2017, to 14.81 billion (€2 billion) last year.

In terms of the Croatia’s state aid expenditure compared to the nation’s GDP, the ratio was 3.25 percent in 2016, 3.41 percent in 2017, and 3.88 percent in 2018.

(€1 = 7.39 kuna)