Croatia's gross external debt in the first quarter of 2021 totalled €43.4 billion, which was equivalent of 88.1% of the country's Gross Domestic Product, or 6.9 percentage points more than at the end of 2020, according to the latest data provided by the National Bank (HNB).

“The stock of gross external debt in the first quarter of 2021 increased by EUR 3.3bn due to the rise in debt of all domestic sectors,” says the central bank.

“The largest increase was seen in general government debt (by EUR 1.9bn) as a result of the mentioned borrowing in the international capital market, through SURE and from IBRD as well as transactions in the secondary market.

“Growth in the debt of the central bank (by EUR 0.8bn) was exclusively the result of the described increase in the volume of repo transactions.

“Credit institutions also increased their debt (by EUR 0.4bn) as well as other domestic sectors, including liabilities to affiliated creditors (by EUR 0.3bn), which mainly refers to private non-financial corporations,” the HNB says on its web site.

In the whole of 2021, the projected economic recovery is expected to again lessen the gross external debt to GDP ratio, however, the absolute value of the debt is likely to increase due to accelerating economic activity and new borrowing on foreign markets, say Raiffaisenbank Austria (RBA) analysts in their comment on the HNB figures.