ZAGREB, March 8, 2018 - Croatia's commodity exports in January this year grew by 2.8% compared to January 2017, while imports grew by 14.4%, show preliminary statistics of the national statistical office (DZS).
In January this year, Croatia exported 7.8 billion kuna worth of commodities, while at the same time imports reached 13 billion kuna.
Exports to other EU countries grew significantly as well, by 15.1% to 5.48 billion kuna, accounting for 70.5% of total exports. Imports from EU countries grew by 12% to more than 10.19 billion kuna.
The preliminary statistics show that total imports in the Jan-Dec 2017 period amounted to 104.3 billion kuna, and imports totalled 162.7 billion kuna. The foreign trade deficit amounted to 58.3 billion kuna, while the export/import ratio was 64.1%.
Expressed in euros, Croatia's commodity exports in 2017 grew 13.5% to 13.98 billion euro, while imports grew 10.6% to 21.8 billion euro. The foreign trade deficit was 7.82 euro billion.
Croatia's most important trade partners in 2017 were again EU countries, which account for 64.8% of its commodity exports and for 78% of imports. Exports to those countries at the end of 2017 totalled 9.06 billion euro or 10.7% more than at the end of 2016, while imports grew 11.7% to 17 billion euro.
Individually, Croatia's most important trade partners in terms of the volume of trade were Italy, Germany and Slovenia.
Exports to countries of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) totalled 2.4 billion euro, up 21.1%, while imports from those countries rose 15.8% to 1.35 billion euro.
Broken down by industry, the highest increase in commodity exports was reported in the food industry.
