Croatia's consolidated general government deficit at the end of 2021 was 12.4 billion kuna (€1.64 billion) or 2.9 percent of GDP, down from 27.7 billion kuna (€3.67 billion ) or 7.3 percent of GDP at the end of 2020, the state statistics bureau said on Friday.

In 2019, the surplus amounted to 969 million kuna (€128 million kuna) or 0.2 percent of GDP, while in 2018, the deficit was 116 million kuna (€15.3 million) or 0.02% of GDP.

The consolidated debt at the end of 2021 amounted to 343.6 billion kuna (€45.5 billion) or 79.8 percent of GDP, while in 2020, it was 330.4 billion (€43.8 billion) or 87.3 percent of GDP. In 2019, the debt amounted to 293.2 billion kuna (€38.8 billion) or 71.1 percent of GDP, while in 2018, it was 286.6 billion kuna (€38 billion) or 73.3 percent of GDP.

The state budget deficit of 14 billion kuna (€1.8 billion), or 3.5 percent of GDP, had a big impact on the deficit amount in 2021, even though it represented an amelioration of 7.02 billion kuna compared to the previous year.

The deficit was caused by the extensive measures taken on the expenditure side of the state budget in order to preserve jobs in businesses whose economic activity had been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as to finance costs of preserving the health of citizens, which also continued in 2021.

The level of the consolidated general government debt (the so-called Maastricht debt) amounted to 343.6 billion kuna in 2021, which was 13.2 billion or 4 percent, higher than at the end of 2020. Out of that, 12.5 billion kuna related to net borrowing and the rest of it to depreciation of the kuna against the euro.

The share of the consolidated general government debt was 79.8 percent of GDP at the end of 2021, which was a decrease of 7.5 percentage points compared to the debt-to-GDP ratio at the end of 2020, when it was 87.3 percent of GDP.

(€1 = 7.54 kuna)