In Q1 2021, dealing with the impact of the pandemic required European governments to increase borrowing, as a result of which the eurozone public debt equaled its GDP for the first time. In Croatia, the debt exceeded 91 percent of the country's GDP, Eurostat said on Thursday.

At the end of Q1 2021, the government debt-to-GDP ratio in the EU was 92.9 percent, up 2.4 percentage points from the end of 2020. In the eurozone, the ratio exceeded 100 percent for the first time, reaching 100.5 percent, up from 97.8 percent at the end of last year.

The highest ratios of government debt-to-GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2021 were recorded in Greece (209.3 percent), Italy (160 percent), Portugal (137.2 percent), Cyprus (125.7 percent) and Spain (125.2 percent).

In Croatia, the ratio was 91.3 percent, up from 88.7 percent at the end of Q4 2020 and from 73.7 percent at the end of Q1 2020. Austria’s government debt-to-GDP ratio at the end of Q1 2021 was 87.4 percent and Slovenia’s 86 percent.

Thirteen EU member states recorded ratios below the maximum 60 percent allowed. The lowest were recorded in Estonia (18.5 percent), Bulgaria (25.1 percent) and Luxembourg (28.1 percent).

The bulk of the member states recorded higher ratios than at the end of 2020. The largest increases were observed in Cyprus (+6.5 percentage points) and Czechia (+6.3 pp), while decreases were recorded only in Lithuania (-1.5 pp) and Denmark (-1.4 pp).

Compared with the first quarter of 2020, all member states recorded an increase in their debt-to-GDP ratio at the end of Q1 2021. The largest increases were recorded in Cyprus (+29.5 pp), Greece (+28.6 pp) and Spain (+26.2 pp). The lowest increase was observed in Ireland (+1.7 pp).

Croatia’s ratio at the end of Q1 2021 was 2.6 pp higher than at the end of the previous quarter, putting it within the EU and euro average, close to France, where it went up 2.9 pp. Croatia is close to France also on the annual level, where the increase was 17.6 pp, as against 17.2 pp in France.