The gross foreign debt of Croatia at the end of 2022 amounted to 49.6 billion euros, which is 1.7 billion euros more than at the end of 2021 and represents 73.5 percent of GDP, according to data from the Croatian National Bank.
On an annual basis, gross foreign debt increased by 3.6 percent or 1.7 billion euros, but on a monthly basis, it slightly decreased, being 0.05 percent or 25.4 million euros lower than at the end of November last year.
The growth of gross foreign debt in absolute terms is the result of the increase in debt across all domestic sectors (general government, central bank, other monetary financial institutions, in direct investments), except for other domestic sectors, whose gross foreign debt decreased by 218 million euros compared to the end of 2021.
Despite the increase in gross foreign debt in absolute terms, strong GDP growth during 2022, at a rate of 6.3 percent, resulted in an improvement in the relative indicator of gross foreign indebtedness, which stood at 73.5 percent of GDP at the end of December 2022. This is 4.5 percentage points lower than at the end of 2021, when gross foreign debt reached 78 percent of GDP.
