This was a considerably slower rise in the external debt in comparison to first ten months of 2003 when the debt rose by $5.6 billion, i.e. 36.3 percent.
A relative indicator of the situation in the country's external debt shows that the share of the foreign debt in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 77.8 percent at the end of 2004, and 74.8 percent at the end of 2003.
The three-percent increase in the first ten months of 2004 indicates considerable deceleration in the rise of the Croatian foreign debt in comparison to the first ten months in 2003 when this rise was 9.3 percent. The debt's share in GDP was 61.4 at the end of 2003, and 70.6 percent at the end of October 2003, the central bank's analysts have said.
Companies, including direct foreign investments, made the biggest contribution to a rise in the total debt per transactions.
In the first ten months of 2004, companies incurred debts of $3.1 billion, and two thirds of this amount referred nto ew long-term loans. In the same period companies paid off two billion dollars of debts which were due for payment.
The state and banks equally contributed to the rise in the country's external debt.
In the first ten months, the state incurred new debts worth $1.7 billion, and paid back some $700 million dollars of the due principal sum and $325 million of interest rates, the central bank reported in its last bulletin.
The banking sector's new debt was $1.6 billion with the payment of principal sums of $600 million.