The Croatian gross foreign deficit, not including direct investments, amounted to €43.16 billion last October, dropping €300 million on a monthly level although €54 million higher than at the end of the previous year, the Croatian National Bank (HNB) reports
‘Croatia’s gross foreign deficit dropped by €300 million in October of 2010, partially due to positive exchange rate shifts, or an increase in the euro over the Swiss franc and the US dollar’, said HNB analysts in the central bank’s latest bulletin.
The HNB adds that net transactions show for smaller shifts in the gross foreign deficit, with debt payments €100 million higher than new debentures, while the first nine months of 2010 saw payments outweigh new debentures by a total €300 million euro.
However, due to the influence of inter-currency exchange rates the state of Croatia’s gross foreign deficit (excluding direct investments) at the end of October were about level with the state at the end of 2009, the HNB Bulletin reports.
The state sector’s foreign deficit amounted to 5.9 billion euro at the end of October, 17.3 million lower than in September but 693.4 million higher than at the end of 2009.
Following a considerable increase in July of 2010 following the sale of bonds on the US market, the foreign deficit remained more or less unchanged over the following months and remained level at the end of October.
After banks considerably lowered their foreign deficit in the third quarter, the trend continued in October. With the value of payments outweighing the value of new debentures in October, banks saw their share in the foreign deficit drop €300 million for a total of €9.7 billion at the end of October.
The HNB reports that the debt structure in this sector also continued to improve as all payments were for short-term foreign debts.
Compared to the end of 2009, commercial banks lowered their foreign debts by approximately €1 billion.
The state of foreign debts for other domestic sectors (primarily non-banking financial institutions and commercial companies) remained more or less level at the end of October at 21.6 billion euro.
Meanwhile, privately owned companies increased their foreign deficits, but this was offset by the slight improvement made by public companies as well as by non-banking financial institutions, HNB analysts claim.
At the end of October the gross foreign deficit for other domestic sectors compared to the end of 2009 increased by just over €300 million.
