Thesis is "The interrelation of external debt and the financial crisis." The paper attempts to define the concept of the financial crisis, its species and to define the term external debt. The main objective of this research is to explain the connection between foreign debt and the financial crisis and how to influence the increase of external debt, and whether it was influenced by the financial crisis, research will be done in the case of Croatia. Financial crises indicate greater interference in the financial system, which monitors the drop in the value of assets and insolvency of many institutions and companies in the financial sector and other economic sectors and marked negative effect on economic activity in one or more countries. On the financial crisis affecting various causes such as problems arising in the functioning of the banking system, over-indebtedness of the country, inadequate and ineffective monetary policy, poor exchange rate policy, the imbalance in the balance of payments. The specificity of causes which generated the financial crisis is that it never happen twice the same way. The similarities of different crises exist but each is specific, whether the cause or manner of resolving the crisis and the consequences arising from the financial and the real sector. Since Croatia in the last few years the level of high indebtedness, thesis on the relationship between foreign debt and financial crisis, I tried to approach the situation in which Croatia is currently located, which are the most significant causes of high debt and what is the strategy of Croatia.