The report corresponds to data on the general government debt released by the Croatian National Bank earlier this month.
Croatia is ninth on Eurostat's rankings of the government debt to GDP ratio. The first two positions are held by Greece (168.8% of GDP) and Italy (135.1%). However, Croatia is among the EU member states with the fastest increases in the government debt to GDP ratio.
Compared to Q4 2014, Croatia's government debt to GDP ratio increased by 2.6 percentage points. Only Belgium and Italy had faster increases, of 4.5 pp and 3 pp respectively.
Compared to Q1 2015, Croatia's government debt to GDP ratio increased by 6.2 pp. Only Bulgaria posted a faster increase, of 10 pp.
The Finance Ministry said it was preparing a public debt management strategy in order to manage the debt efficiently and provide for stable public finance in the long term.
Restricting the borrowing of state-owned enterprises and their restructuring will contribute to a long term solution to the public debt, the ministry said. Croatia is implementing measures as part of the Excessive Deficit Procedure and they are expected to help stabilise the public debt in the years ahead, it added.