Croatia’s public debt, which includes domestic and foreign debt of the central government, extra-budgetary users, and local government, amounted to 176.2 billion kuna at the end of October last year, an increase of 20.3 billion kuna compared to the end of 2011, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Finance.
In the first ten months of last year, public debt increased by 13 percent. The growth of public debt during the past year was significantly influenced by the assumption of obligations of shipyards covered by state guarantees into public debt. During the past year, obligations under guarantees in the shipbuilding sector amounting to 9.2 billion kuna were assumed into public debt.
According to data from the Monthly Statistical Report of the Ministry of Finance, the share of Croatia’s public debt in estimated GDP rose from 46.7 percent at the end of 2011 to 52.1 percent of GDP at the end of October last year.
When viewed by levels of government, the largest part of public debt relates to the debt of the central government, which amounted to 165.8 billion kuna at the end of October 2012, an increase of 19.7 billion kuna, or 13.5 percent, compared to the end of 2011.
A significant part of this increase was related to the aforementioned assumption of credit obligations of shipbuilding covered by state guarantees into public debt, while the remainder relates to borrowing for the purpose of financing the budget deficit.
Of the total debt of the central government of 165.8 billion kuna, the largest part relates to borrowing on the domestic market, which amounted to 105.1 billion kuna at the end of October, while the foreign debt of the central government amounted to 60.6 billion kuna.
