August the 11th, 2026 – Croatian public debt has increased by 4.6 billion euros in a single year, with long-term borrowing dominating the entire picture.
As Poslovni/Ana Blaskovic writes, Croatian public debt stood at a whopping 55 billion euros back at the end of April, which is 4.6 billion euros or 9 percent higher than in the same period last year, according to the latest data from the Croatian National Bank (HNB). Compared to the end of last year, the debt increased by 2.7 billion euros, or 5.2 percent, while on a monthly basis a slight decrease of 148 million euros was recorded.
The largest sum of the increase comes from stronger borrowing by the central government, whose debt reached 54 billion euros. This means the central government accounts for more than 98 percent of Croatia’s total public debt. At the same time, local government units, municipalities, cities and counties, are borrowing more and more. Their obligations have been rising for 15 consecutive months, and at double-digit rates.
the domination of long-term borrowing
Back in April, the annual growth rate stood at 21.4 percent, after 20 percent in March. In contrast, social security funds continued to reduce their debt level, which was 32.2 percent lower on an annual basis.
The structure of borrowing shows that long-term instruments still prevail. About 65 percent of the non-consolidated debt relates to bonds, while the rest consists of loans, deposits and short-term securities. Notably, the Ministry of Finance has significantly increased the issuance of treasury bills, which is why domestic debt in the short-term securities segment rose by 45.5 percent year-on-year, Raiffeisen analysts note.
Croatia continues to finance itself mostly on the domestic market. At the end of April, domestic investors held 68.6 percent of the public debt, while the share of foreign creditors was 31.4 percent. After Eurozone accession, the share of the domestic component stabilised around 70 percent, reflecting a multi-year trend of strengthening domestic sources of state financing.
the public invests 4.9 billion euros in a year
HNB data also show growth in investments from the general public in government securities. Household investments increased from 3.9 billion euros to 4.9 billion euros in one single year, while financial companies raised their exposure to state debt from 31.1 billion euros to 32.6 billion euros. Despite the rise in nominal debt, Croatia remains below the Maastricht threshold. At the end of the first quarter, the public debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 58.4 percent, 0.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
Raiffeisen analyst Petar Bejuk assesses that domestic fiscal indicators remain more favourable than the wider Eurozone average, primarily thanks to strong nominal economic growth. For the full year, he expects the public debt ratio to stay below 60 percent of GDP, noting that fiscal policy should preserve enough room to respond to possible future risks.
