In October 2021 some 242,000 Croatians had their bank accounts frozen over debts, which collectively totaled 18.2 billion kuna (€2.4bn). In addition, about 15,200 local businesses had their accounts frozen as well, over a 4 billion kuna (€532m) debt, state agency Hina said on Friday citing data released by the state's financial agency Fina.

The number of indebted people remained unchanged from the month before but was 2.1 percent down from October 2020. Their debt principal amounted to 18.2 billion (€2.4bn), or 0.4 percent up from September 2021 and 4.9 percent up from October 2020.

Croatia is thought to have a population of around 4 million, including about 3.3 million adults, meaning nearly 14 percent – or almost one in seven – of all adult Croatians had frozen bank accounts in October.

With an interest debt of 6.8 billion kuna (€905m) added to that amount, Croatians owed a total of 25 billion kuna (€3.3bn). About 5.8 billion kuna (€772m) or 32 percent of the principal, was owed to banks, probably largely for mortgages and various consumer loans.

The debt of privately owned businesses of 4 billion kuna (€532m) was by 6.3 percent down from September 2021 and 1.2 billion kuna (€160m) or 23.2 percent down from October 2020. The interest owed by businesses totaled 1.1 billion (€146m) putting their total debt at 5.1 billion kuna (€679m).

(€1 = 7.51 kuna)