Nevertheless, personal indebtedness in Croatia is still far below the level of indebtedness in the European Monetary Union, which at the end of last year's third quarter was 57 percent of GDP. Compared to the situation in the new EU member-countries, personal indebtedness in Croatia is twice higher - in late 2005 bank claims towards citizens in the new EU member-countries did not exceed 18 percent of GDP.
The estimated loan indebtedness in Croatia rose from 32.1 percent in late 2004 to 35.9 percent of GDP in late 2005.
Ninety-six percent of personal debts were loans granted by commercial banks, according to the latest issue of the HNB bulletin "Makrobonitetna analiza".
Apart from the strong growth of increasingly favourable loans offered by commercial banks, the average indebtedness per employee has increased steadily in recent years too, going up from some 23,000 kuna in late 2001 to 49,000 in late 2004 and to some 58,000 kuna at the end of 2005.
1 EUR = 7.28 kuna