ZAGREB, April 22, 2020 – In 2019, the consolidated general government surplus amounted to HRK 1.55 billion, or 0.4% of GDP, while the consolidated general government debt amounted to HRK 293 billion or 73.2% of GDP, shows a report on the Excessive Deficit Procedure by the national statistics office, published on Wednesday.
In 2018, Croatia saw a consolidated government surplus of HRK 850 million or 0.2% of GDP while the consolidated government debt amounted to HRK 286 billion or 74.4% of GDP.
The official statistics indicate that 2019 was the third consecutive year that the government achieved a general government surplus while the debt to GDP ratio continued to decrease thanks to a nominal increase in GDP.
The surplus was mostly owing to a considerably improved financial result of extrabudgetary beneficiaries and public companies and increased tax revenues.
In 2019, taxes on production and imports totalled HRK 81.3 billion, an increase of 6% on the previous year.
Investments also grew by 27.6% to HRK 17.2 billion but last year was also marked by payments of government guarantees for shipyards amounting to HRK 1.78 billion, which impacted the surplus, DZS said.
At the end of 2019, the consolidated general government debt increased by HRK 6.9 billion, up 2.4% compared to the end of 2018. Of that amount, HRK 5.7 billion was net borrowing while the rest is attributed to positive exchange rate changes in the kuna against the euro.
The debt-to-GDP ratio fell by 1.5 percentage points compared to 2018 and stood at 73.2% of GDP at the end of 2019.
Last year the government adopted a budget based on an expected economic growth of 2.5%, a consolidated general government surplus of 0.2% of GDP or HRK 629 million, and a public debt to GDP ratio of 71.3%, however, with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which is seriously affecting the economy, it will be difficult to achieve those goals, the DZS said in its report.
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