Croatia's general government gross debt to GDP ratio was considerably below the euro area and EU averages at the end of March 2023, according to figures published on Friday by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

At the end of the first quarter of 2023, the general government gross debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 91.2%, compared with 91.4% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022. In the EU, the ratio also decreased from 83.8% to 83.7%.

Compared with the first quarter of 2022, the government debt to GDP ratio also decreased in both the euro area (from 95.0% to 91.2%) and the EU (from 87.4% to 83.7%).

The highest ratios of government debt to GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2023 were recorded in Greece (168.3%), Italy (143.5%), Portugal (113.8%), Spain (112.8%), France (112.4%) and Belgium (107.4%), and the lowest in Estonia (17.2%), Bulgaria (22.5%), Luxembourg (28.0%) and Denmark (29.4%).

Croatia’s consolidated general government debt reached €48.1 billion at the end of March 2023, or 69.5% of GDP, and was on par with Slovenia’s. At the end of December 2022 it was €46.08 billion, or 68.8% of GDP, while at the end of March 2022 it was €45.48 billion, or 75.9% of GDP.

Compared with the fourth quarter of 2022, eleven Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2023 and sixteen a decrease. The largest increases in the ratio were observed in Luxembourg (+3.4 percentage points – pp), Belgium (+2.2 pp), Austria and Latvia (both +2.1 pp), Romania (+1.7 pp) and Hungary (+1.5 pp) while the largest decreases were recorded in Greece (-3.0 pp), Cyprus (-2.5 pp), the Netherlands (-1.8 pp), Estonia (-1.2 pp), Sweden (-1.1 pp), Poland (-1.0 pp), Ireland and Italy (both -0.9 pp).

Compared with the first quarter of 2022, six Member States registered an increase in their debt to GDP ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2023 and twenty-one Member States a decrease. Increases in the ratio were recorded in Luxembourg (+5.4 pp), Czechia (+1.7 pp), Latvia (+1.1 pp) Romania (+0.7 pp), Bulgaria (+0.5 pp) and Finland (+0.2 pp), while the largest decreases were observed in Greece (-21.2 pp), Cyprus (-18.0 pp), Portugal (-10.8 pp), Ireland (-8.9 pp), Italy (-7.9 pp), Croatia (-6.4 pp), Slovenia (-5.2 pp), Spain (-4.6 pp) and Poland (-3.8 pp).