January 4 (SeeNews) - Croatia's public debt grew to 291.6 billion kuna ($47.3 billion/39.2 billion euro) as at end-September, up 0.9% compared with the end-2016 figure and equivalent to 81.0% of the projected 2017 GDP, Raiffeisenbank Austria Zagreb (RBA) said on Thursday.
Compared with the end-August figure, Croatia's public debt increased by 1.3% as at end-September, mainly due to slight growth of both domestic and external debt components, RBA said in a daily note, quoting data of Croatia's central bank.
On a yearly comparison basis, public debt was 0.9% higher year-on-year at end-September, reflecting a 4.0% rise in the domestic debt component which reached 186.4 billion kuna in the first nine months of 2017.
Despite the increases, the bank noted that, taking into account the estimated continuation of economic growth, it expects the public debt-to-GDP ratio to fall below 80% in 2017.
(1 euro=7.43175 kuna)