June the 20th, 2022 - The first concrete Croatian tourism data is finally in, and it looks as if we can well and truly put the coronavirus-dominated years of 2020 and 2021 behind us. The Finance Minister believes that we could very much blow even the record year of 2019's numbers out of the water this summer season.

As Morski writes, Croatian Finance Minister Zdravko Maric has expressed his hope that there will be no sudden and negative shocks to come, and as long as there aren't, this year could absolutely surpass the record year of 2019.

After two pandemic-dominated years, people are finally up and about and travelling once again. The epidemiological measures for Europe are now a thing of the past. Neither the Ukrainian war, nor the enormous jump in prices, nor the rage of ongoing and seemingly endless inflation are preventing anyone from hopping in their cars, on buses, trains and planes. This trend has been very clearly shown by all the announcements of the tourist season here in Croatia, but also the actual Croatian tourism data from the field.

After the excellent Easter tourist results, this new, concrete Croatian tourism data speaks very much in favour of the announcements of an excellent height of the summer tourist season. Corpus Christi (Croatian: Tijelovo) is one of the holidays by which one can typically assess what kind of summer season awaits the country, and the data on traffic generated for that holiday on the country's motorways heading in the direction of the coast show that this tourist season could surpass that of 2019.

According to Hrvatske autoceste (Croatian motorways), 38,387 vehicles entered the motorway via the Lucko toll station on the 16th of June, 2022. That is 4.4 percent more vehicles than were recorded back during 2019. At that time, 36,752 vehicles entered the motorway for Tijelovo at Lucko. Considering that Croatia is widely recognised as a car destination in Europe due to its highly developed and excellently built motorway network, this data is sufficient to be rubbing our hands together for some really great tourist months, Jutarnji list writes.

Minister of Finance Zdravko Maric joined in with the good announcements for the season a few days ago, saying that the value of fiscalised bills/receipts for the tourism sector in the first five and a half months of this year is 22 percent higher than the record tourist year of 2019, and that we have every right to expect a top quality tourist season.

The announcements of an excellent tourist season are supported by the concrete Croatian tourism data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) which notes that 1.5 million tourists stayed in commercial accommodation in the first four months of 2022, who realised 4.4 million overnight stays, which is 184 and 190 percent more than in the same period last year.

In the first four months of this year, commercial accommodation recorded one million tourists and almost three million more overnight stays than in the same months back in 2021, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

April the 20th, 2022 - The number of brand new cars being registered in the Republic of Croatia has increased by 17.5 percent, at least according to the last available data which is for 2021.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, last year, there were 2.38 million registered road vehicles in the Republic of Croatia, which is 3.2 percent more than back in 2020, with 1.8 million passenger cars registered with an increase of 2.8 percent, and the first (initial) registrations of passenger cars increased by 17.5 percent compared to 2020, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

Last year, 151,680 road vehicles were registered for the first time, which is an increase of 14.4 percent compared to 2020.

Unlike the 2020 results, when the decline in the number of road vehicles registered for the first time in this country was directly affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, last year saw the registrations of all types of vehicles across the country, with the exception of mopeds.

The first registrations of personal vehicles last year across the country stood at 112,345, equal to 17.5 percent more than the year before when there were 95,577 of the same. The increase is a result of the increase in the number of first registrations of new cars (26.1 percent) and used vehicles (14 percent). The increase in the number of cars on the roads has also unfortunately resulted in a higher number of traffic accidents.

According to CBS data, in 2021 there were 9,146 traffic accidents across the country with casualties, which is an increase of 18.6 percent compared to 2020, when 7,710 were registered.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated lifestyle section.

February the 26th, 2022 - The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has announced that Croatian inflation is resulting in the highest price increases in thirteen years, with no improvement on the horizon to speak of as the Eurozone experiences the same, energy prices continue to soar and Russia invades Ukraine.

As Novac/Jutarnji/Gojko Drljaca writes, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) finally released Croatian inflation data for the month of January 2022 on Thursday, which went unnoticed due to the horrendous and unjustified Russian attack on Ukraine, although prices did continue to rise significantly. In January 2022, prices were 5.7 percent higher than in the same month back in 2021.

However, despite the somewhat longer wait for Croatian inflation data compared to more advanced countries, new CBS statistics confirmed what we already suspected in January: the key cause of rising prices across Croatia is now not only the sky high global energy prices but also transport prices (growth in January +10.8 percent), food and non-alcoholic beverages (+9.4 percent), alcoholic beverages and tobacco (+6.2 percent), furniture, household equipment and household maintenance costs (+5.0 percent) and at restaurants and hotels (+ 4.7 percent).

Of particular concern is the data on rising food and non-alcoholic beverage prices and transport, as these are costs that the poorest of the country's families and households cannot avoid at all. The same is a growing concern in regard to housing, water and electricity costs, which rose by a significant 2.7 percent in January alone. It is now obvious that an inflationary spiral is being created here in Croatia, as it is in other European Union (EU) member states.

On a monthly basis, the highest growth of 2.9 percent was recorded in food and non-alcoholic beverages. The only significant drop in prices as Croatian inflation causes more and more worry was recorded in the group of clothing and footwear (-12.9 percent), which indicates possible problems being experienced by that business. Namely, it seems that some consumers with lower purchasing power must already be planning to give up.

Although the data being released by official bodies on Croatian inflation is beginning to sound a bit dramatic, the Croatian economy is still right in the middle of the EU inflation average, which offers a certain degree of comfort. In January in the EU, the highest inflation was recorded in the Czech Republic (+8.8 percent), Estonia (+11 percent) and Lithuania (+12.3 percent). The most stable prices could be found in Sweden (+3.9 percent), Portugal (+3.4 percent) and France (+3.3 percent).

Given that the Republic of Croatia is one of the poorest member states of the EU, even average European Union inflation will be a significantly bigger economic and social problem for it, because both theoretical and empirical price increases hit the poorest the hardest. Of particular concern is the fact that the war in Ukraine will certainly have a pro-inflationary effect across all EU member states.

Eurostat officially released Croatian inflation data on February the 17th, with projections released in the first week of February. It is unclear whether, after entering the Eurozone, the CBS will adjust to the speed of other statistical institutions across the European Union.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.