October 1 (SeeNews) - Croatia's gross foreign debt totalled 44.2 billion euro ($51.3 billion) equal to 85.6% of GDP at the end of June, down 2.8 percentage points from the end of March, thanks to nominal GDP growth, the central bank said.
The stock of gross external debt grew by 700 million euro in the second quarter of 2021, as the sharpest increase, of 800 million euro, was seen in the debt of private non-financial corporations, including their liabilities to affiliated creditors, followed by a rise in central bank debt 400 million euro resulting from an increase in the volume of repo transactions, the central bank said in a comment on foreign debt developments on Thursday.
By contrast, credit institutions and general government reduced their debt, by 300 million euro euro and 200 million euro, respectively. The growth in gross external debt in absolute terms coincided with an even larger increase in debt claims of domestic sectors, primarily central bank's assets, which finally led to a reduction in net external debt of 700 million euro in the second quarter of 2021. Thus, net external debt totalled 7.6 billion euro at the end of June equal to 14.7% of GDP, down 2.0 percentage points from the end of March.
The fall in net external debt led to an improvement in the net international investment position, from –24.5billion euro at the end of March to –24.2 billion euro at the end of June 2021.
($= 0.861 euro)