Summary

• The current and capital account balance stood at –EUR 3.04bn in the first quarter of 2026, up from –EUR 3.06bn in the same quarter of the year before.
• The financial account of the balance of payments recorded a balance of –EUR 3.29bn in the first quarter of 2026, relative to EUR–3.47bn in the same quarter of the year before.
• The net international investment position stood at –EUR 29.05bn at the end of the first quarter of 2026. The negative balance went up by EUR 0.04bn from the end of the first quarter of 2025, while its share in GDP increased from –33.4% to –30.7%.
• Gross external debt stood at EUR 66.7bn or 70.5% of GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2026.

The current and capital account of the balance of payments (Figure 1) ran a deficit of EUR 3.04bn in the first quarter of 2026, having decreased by EUR 18m from the same quarter in the preceding year. This is mainly attributable to the secondary income and capital transaction sub-accounts, the positive balances of which increased by EUR 62.8m and EUR 152.5m, respectively, from the same quarter in the previous year. The negative goods balance increased by EUR 85.9m, while the positive balance on the services sub-account increased by EUR 2.6m. The positive balance in the primary income sub-account decreased by EUR 113.8m.^[1]

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 –3.29bn in the first quarter of 2026 (Figure 2). This was largely the result of net negative transactions of EUR –2.42bn recorded in other investment. Transactions in the direct and portfolio investment sub-accounts were also net negative, amounting to EUR –354m and EUR –202m, respectively, while net transactions in the financial derivatives sub-account stood at –EUR 290m. Net transactions in international reserves were also negative in the first quarter of 2026, amounting to EUR –24m.

Figure 2 Balance of payments – financial account

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

At the level of the last four quarters (Table 1), the cumulative deficit in the current and capital account stood at EUR 1.445bn or 1.5% of GDP, relative to the deficit of EUR 1.463m or 1.6% of GDP in 2025. In the last four quarters, the financial account recorded a cumulative deficit of EUR 2.447bn or 2.6% of GDP, in contrast with a deficit of EUR 2.629bn or 2.8% of GDP recorded in 2025.

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 29.05bn at the end of the first quarter of 2026, with the share in GDP standing at –30.7%. The negative balance went up by EUR 38.1m from the end of the first quarter of 2025, while its share in GDP increased from –33.4% to –30.7%.

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 (Figure 4) went down from 6.8% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 3.5% at the end of the first quarter of 2026, while the share of net equity investment in GDP increased from –35.3% to –34.5%. For the sake of comparison, the share of net debt investment and net equity investment in GDP at the end of the first quarter of 2025 stood at 4.7% and –38.2%, respectively.

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

At the end of the first quarter of 2026, gross external debt (Figure 5) stood at EUR 66.7bn or 70.5% of GDP, up by EUR 4.4bn or 3.6 percentage points of GDP from the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. Gross external debt excluding the CNB (82.6% of the total gross external debt) increased by EUR 2.5bn from the fourth quarter of 2025 or by 1.6 percentage points if the share of debt in GDP is observed.

Figure 5 Stock of gross external debt^{[2] [3]}

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. ↑

3. In the fourth quarter of 2025, gross external debt saw a significant one-off decrease as the Croatian National Bank stopped conducting repo transactions abroad in December 2025. ↑