Although going up from March, which stopped a five-month consecutive decrease on a monthly basis, in April 2016 the gross foreign debt continued to decrease year on year, RBA said.
The year-on-year decrease was mainly due to other monetary financial institutions, whose debt went down to EUR 5.5 billion at the end of April 2016 (-4.2% on the month and -33.1% on the year), primarily due to the continuation of the deleveraging of the banking sector which began in May 2012.
The general government's gross foreign debt went down to EUR 14.9 billion at the end of April 2016, down 1.6% on the month. In March, it decreased annually for the first time since May 2009, by 8.9%, continuing to fall in April, by 8.4%.
The gross foreign debt of the public sector, including non-financial companies, totalled EUR 18.7 billion at the end of April 2016, down 0.1% on the month and 7.3% on the year. Other domestic sectors' gross foreign debt stood at EUR 16.2 billion, down 1.5% on the year.
RBA expects the 2016 gross foreign debt to GDP ratio to be lower than in 2015.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.49)