Summary

• The current and capital account balance stood at EUR –1.21bn in the fourth quarter of 2024, relative to EUR –0.44bn in the same quarter of the year before.
• The financial account of the balance of payments recorded a balance of EUR –1.48bn (net capital inflow) in the fourth quarter of 2024, relative to EUR–0.11bn in the same quarter of the year before.
• The net international investment position stood at EUR –23.4bn at the end of 2024. The negative balance went up by EUR 1.52m from the end of 2023, while its share in GDP increased from –28.1% to –27.4%.
• Gross external debt stood at EUR 56.2bn or 65.7% of GDP at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.

The current and capital account of the balance of payments (Figure 1) ran a deficit of EUR 1.21bn in the fourth quarter of 2024, which is a deterioration in the balance of EUR 0.77bn from the same quarter of the previous year. This was mostly due to the goods sub-account, the negative balance of which increased by EUR 406m, and the fall in the positive balance of the capital account by EUR 256m, mainly as a result of smaller distributions of EU funds in the form of capital transfers to end users. Relative to the same quarter of the year before, the positive balance in the services and secondary income sub-accounts decreased by EUR 78.7m and EUR 231.6m, respectively, while the primary income sub-account^[1] recorded an increase in the positive balance of EUR 196.6m.

Figure 1 Balance of payments – current and capital account

^a Sum of the last four quarters
Source: CNB.

The balance in the financial account of the balance of payments (the difference between total assets acquired and total liabilities assumed) stood at EUR –1.48bn in the fourth quarter of 2024, relative to EUR –0.11bn in the same quarter of the previous year (Figure 2). This was largely the result of the increase in the negative balance in the other investment sub-account (EUR 1.03bn), while the negative balance in the direct investment sub-account increased and stood at EUR 373.1m. The balance in the portfolio investment, financial derivatives and international reserves sub-accounts saw no significant change from the same quarter last year.

Figure 2 Balance of payments – financial account

^a Sum of the last four quarters
Source: CNB.

At the level of 2024 as a whole (Table 1), the cumulative surplus in the current and capital account stood at EUR 171.6m or 0.2% of GDP, relative to EUR 2.54bn or 3.0% of GDP in 2023. In 2024, the financial account recorded a positive cumulative surplus of EUR 773.3m or 0.9% of GDP, in contrast with EUR 3.81bn or 4.5% of GDP recorded in 2023.

Table 1 Balance of payments

^a Sum of the last four quarters

Notes: Positive net values for individual financial account components in Table 1 and Figure 2 indicate that transactions by which foreign assets are acquired are larger than the transactions by which foreign liabilities are assumed for a given financial account component over a given period or denote net capital outflow abroad. Negative values indicate that the transactions by which foreign assets are acquired are smaller than the transactions by which foreign liabilities are assumed for a given financial account component over a given period or denote net capital inflow from abroad.
Source: CNB.

Net international investment position (Figure 3) was EUR –23.4bn at the end of 2024, with the share in GDP standing at –27.4%. The negative balance went up by EUR 1.52m from the end of 2023. However, its share in GDP was less pronounced and recorded an increase from –28.1% at the end of 2023.

Figure 3 International investment position

Notes: The net international investment position equals the difference between domestic sectors' foreign assets and liabilities at the end of a period. The negative value of the net international investment position indicates that foreign liabilities of Croatian residents are greater than their foreign assets. Included are assets and liabilities based on debt instruments, equity investments, financial derivatives, and other instruments.
Source: CNB.

The share of net debt investment in GDP went down from 11.4% at the end of the third quarter to 10.6% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, while the share of net equity investment in GDP decreased from –35.2% to –37.9%. For the sake of comparison, the share of net debt investment and net equity investment in GDP at the end of 2023 stood at 7.0% and –35.6%, respectively.

Figure 4 Share of international investment position in GDP by type of investment

At the end of 2024, gross external debt (Figure 5) stood at EUR 56.2bn or 65.7% of GDP, down by EUR 7.6bn or 10.4 percentage points of GDP from the end of the third quarter of 2024. Gross external debt excluding CNB (87% of the total gross external debt) dropped by EUR 0.5bn from the third quarter of 2024 or by 1.7 percentage points if the share of debt in GDP is observed.

Figure 5 Stock of gross external debt^[2]

Detailed balance of payments data
Detailed gross external debt data
Detailed data on the international investment position

1. Primary income consists of employee compensations and investment income (retained earnings, dividends, interest). Secondary income refers to current transfers (workers’ remittances, pensions, gifts and grants, taxes and contributions, flows of funds as part of international cooperation). ↑

2. After the Republic of Croatia joined the euro area, gross external debt increased by the amount of liabilities associated with the allocation of the euro banknotes within the Eurosystem. This amount is the difference between the amount of banknotes in circulation, the allocation to which the CNB is entitled according to the ECB’s key, and actually issued banknotes in circulation. In addition, this amount of liabilities is reduced by the estimated amount of euro banknotes in circulation in the Republic of Croatia that are issued under the ECB’s key of other euro area countries. Only the amount of the difference between the amount of banknotes in circulation, the allocation to which the CNB is entitled according to the ECB’s key, and the actually issued banknotes in circulation is recorded on the foreign claims side, so that the effect on the balance of net external debt is favourable since the balance of assets is larger than the balance of liabilities. ↑