Public debt management is a complex process consisting of a multitude of smaller phases that ultimately have as their primary goal the acquisition of financial resources for the purpose of financing the budget deficit. Public debt management strategies are guidelines that define the goals in the debt management process itself, and which seek to bring the state budget into balance in the long term. They tend to reduce risk exposure and ensure the long-term sustainability of public debt. Debt management strategies vary from state to state, which largely depends on its capabilities, and its ability to keep public debt under control. The goals of individual strategies depend on the amount and structure of debt, credit rating, characteristics of the capital market, the success of fiscal and monetary policy, etc. The aim of this paper is, in addition to the analysis of public debt management strategies and debt response to the process of implementing the strategy, to analyze the movement of public debt in the Republic of Croatia and show its structure over time. Also, the paper presents a comparison of the share of public debt in the GDP of the Republic of Croatia in relation to other European Union countries, as well as a comparison of credit ratings in order to draw a conclusion about the success of implemented strategies in individual countries.