ZAGREB, 11 March (2022) - Croatia exported HRK 12.3 billion worth of commodities in January 2022, which is an increase of 43.7% over the same period in 2021, while imports rose by 43.9% to HRK 18.8 billion, according to initial data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

The foreign trade deficit was HRK 6.6 billion, increasing by 2 billion from January 2021. Coverage of imports by exports was 65.1%.

Exports to EU member states rose by 50.4% from January 2021 to HRK 8.97 billion, while imports increased by 27.4% to HRK 13.6 billion.

Exports to non-EU countries grew by 28.3% to HRK 3.3 billion, and imports from those countries rose by 117.1% to HRK 5.2 billion.

Expressed in euro, exports totalled €1.6 billion, up 44.1% year on year, while imports grew by 44.4% to €2.5 billion. The trade deficit was €874.6 million.

The value of EU exports was €1.2 billion, which is an increase of 50.8% compared with January 2021, while imports rose by 27.8% to €1.8 billion.

Exports to non-EU countries went up by 28.6% to €439.7 million, and imports increased by 117.6% to €697.9 million.

Data for the whole of 2021 shows that exports increased by 28.2% to HRK 143.7 billion and imports by 23.5% to HRK 213 billion compared with 2020.

The trade deficit was HRK 69.3 billion, and coverage of imports by exports was 67.5%.

Expressed in euro, last year exports totalled €19.1 billion, increasing by 28.2% year on year, while imports grew by 23.5% to €28.3 billion. The trade deficit was €9.2 billion.

(€1 = HRK 7.560109

For more, check out our business section.

ZAGREB, March 10, 2020 - Croatia's commodity exports in January 2020 totalled HRK 8.3 billion, up by 0.4% compared to January 2019, while the imports rose 1.3% to HRK 14 billion, according to provisional data provided by the national statistical office (DZS) on Tuesday.

As a result, the country's foreign trade deficit was HRK 5.7 billion, which is by 154.3 million kuna more than in January 2019.

The coverage of imports by exports went from 59.9% to 59.4%.

Croatia's exports to other EU member-states rose by 3.6% to over six billion kuna on the year.

On the other hand, exports to non-EU members fell 7.2% to HRK 2.3 billion.

The imports from EU members increased 1.3% to HRK 11.5 billion, and from non-EU members by 1.5% to HRK 2.6 billion.

Expressed in euros, Croatia's commodity exports in January 2020 totalled €1.1 billion, down 0.2% on the year, while imports went up 0.8% to €1.9 billion.

The foreign trade deficit was €765.7 million, as against €748.8 million in January 2019.

The latest data on exports and imports in the whole of 2019, show that Croatia's commodity exports in 2019 totalled HRK 114.2 billion, up 5.8% on the year, while imports reached HRK 184.3 billion, an increase of 4.6%.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, December 9, 2019 - Croatia's commodity exports reached 94.1 billion kuna in the first ten months of 2019, an increase of 5% over the same period in 2018, while imports increased by 5.3% to 155.4 billion kuna, initial data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) showed on Monday.

The foreign trade deficit in the first ten months of this year was 61.3 billion kuna, or 3.33 billion kuna higher than at the same time last year. Coverage of imports by exports was 60.5%, down from 60.7% in the first ten months of 2018.

Export to EU member states rose by 4% to 64 billion kuna and exports to non-EU countries went up by 7.2% to 30 billion kuna.

Imports from EU members increased by 9% to 125 billion kuna, while imports from non-EU countries fell by 7.5% to 30 billion kuna.

Viewed in euro, exports reached 12.7 billion euro, up 5.2%, and imports rose by 5.5% to 21 billion euro. The trade deficit was 8.3 billion euro, compared to 7.8 billion euro in the first ten months of 2018.

Exports to EU member states amounted to 8.64 billion euro, an increase of 4.2%, and exports to non-EU countries rose by 7.3% to 4.05 billion euro.

Imports from EU member state increased by 9.2% to 16.9 billion euro, while imports from non-EU countries dropped by 7.4% to 4.11 billion euro.

More economy news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, October 27, 2019 - In 2018, Croatia imported 1,797 tonnes of cut flowers, and the value of this import stood at 9.9 million euro, thus rising by 19.5% in comparison to 2017, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) has reported.

The lion's share of the imports came from the Netherlands, 1,687 tonnes worth 9.1 million euro.

The HGK explains this with the largest trade on the Amsterdam flower market.

The flower imports from Slovenia weighing 45 tonnes cost 435,000 euro in 2018. Germany was the third biggest exporter of flowers to Croatia, 32 tonnes worth 153,000 euro.

In 2017, Croatia imported 1,555 tonnes of cut flowers and the worth of those imports stood at 8.3 million euro, dropping by 8.5% in comparison to 2016.

Broken by type of flowers, roses were the most imported flowers last year, with 789 tonnes worth 4.8 million euro. Chrysanthemums followed, with 196 tonnes worth 981,000 euro.

Croatia's share in the flower production in the European Union stands at a mere 0.5%.

Currently, flowers are grown on only 300 hectares, which is not sufficient to cover domestic needs.

At the end of October and at the beginning of November, when Croatia observes All Saints' Day, November 1, as a public holiday, many Croatians visit cemeteries to lay flowers and light candles on graves of their family members and friends.

Therefore, the import of flowers increases every October by about 50 tonnes, and chrysanthemums are on demand.

Thus, in 2018 Croatia's imports of grave candles and lanterns increased to more than 3,188 tonnes, worth 6.7 million euro.

In the first seven months of this year, Croatia imported 1,079 tonnes of grave lanterns, worth 2.5 million euro.

The main countries that export candles to Croatia are Poland and Germany.

On the other hand, Croatia's exports of candles totalled 1,067 tonnes, worth 2.3 million euro, last year.

In the first seven months of 2019, the exports reached 241 tonnes in the value of 605,000 euro. The main markets for Croatia's candle exports are Hungary and Slovenia.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, October 9, 2019 - Croatia's commodity exports in the first eight months of 2019 totalled 74.1 billion kuna, up 5.8% on the year, while imports went up 5.9% to 123.5 billion kuna, the national statistics office (DZS) reported on Wednesday.

The foreign trade deficit was 49.4 billion kuna, 2.8 billion kuna higher than in the same period last year. The export-import rate dropped from 60.1% to 60% year-on-year.

Commodity exports to EU member states in the period from January to August totalled 50.1 billion kuna, up 4.6% on the year, and HRK 24 billion to non-EU countries, up 8.5%.

Commodity imports from EU member states increased by 9.1% to 99.6 billion kuna while at the same time imports from non-EU countries decreased by 5.7% to 23.9 billion kuna.

Expressed in euro currency, Croatia's commodity exports in the first eight months of 2019 totalled a little more than 10 billion euro, up 6% year-on-year while imports increased at that same rate to 16.7 billion euro.

The foreign trade deficit stood at 6.7 billion euro, up from 6.3 billion euro in the first eight months of 2018.

Commodity exports to EU member states amounted to 6.8 billion euro, up 4.8% on the year, and 3.2 billion euro to non EU countries, up 8.6%.

The value of commodity imports from EU member states increased by 9.3% to 13.4 billion euro, while imports from non-EU countries fell by 5.6% to 3.2 billion euro.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, September 6, 2019 - Croatia's exports reached 66.4 billion kuna in the first seven months of 2019, an increase of 8.2% over the same period in 2018, while imports went up by 6.9% to 109.8 billion kuna, according to initial data from the State Bureau of Statistics (DZS) released on Friday.

The foreign trade deficit was 43.4 billion kuna, up 2 billion kuna, while the coverage of imports by exports increased from 59.7% in the first seven months of 2018 to 60.4% in the same period this year.

Exports to EU member states rose by 6.7% to 44.8 billion kuna, while exports to non-EU countries increased by 11.5% to 21.5 billion kuna. At the same time, imports from EU member states rose by 9.7% to HRK 88.7 billion, while imports from non-EU countries fell by 3.4% to 21 billion kuna.

Viewed in euros, exports totalled €8.9 billion, up 8.3%, while imports went up by 7.1% to €14.8 billion. The foreign trade deficit was €5.8 billion, up from €5.56 billion at the same time last year.

EU exports amounted to slightly over €6 billion, an increase of 6.8%, and non-EU exports rose by 11.6% to €2.9 billion. EU imports increased by 9.9% to €11.9 billion and non-EU imports declined by 3.3% to €2.8 billion.

The DZS revised upwards its data for the first six months of the year, saying that exports increased by 5.5% to 54.7 billion kuna and imports rose by 7.4% to 93.4 billion kuna. Initial data showed that exports increased by 5.1% and imports by 6.8%.

In the first half of the year the foreign trade deficit was 38.7 billion kuna and the coverage of imports by exports was 58.5%.

Viewed in euros, exports in the first half of 2019, compared with the first half of 2018, rose by 5.8% to €7.4 billion and imports went up by 7.6% to €12.6 billion. The foreign trade deficit was €5.2 billion.

More economy news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, August 9, 2019 - Croatia's commodity exports in the first six months of 2019 totalled 54.4 billion kuna, up 5.1% on the year, while imports went up 6.8% to 92.9 billion kuna, according to first estimates presented by the national statistical office (DZS) on Friday.

The foreign trade deficit was 38.5 billion kuna, nearly 3.2 billion kuna higher than in the corresponding period of 2018.

The export-import ratio dropped annually from 59.5% in the first six months of 2018 to 58.6% in H1 2019.

Commodity exports to EU member states totalled 36.8 billion kuna, up 3.6% on the year, and 17.6 billion kuna to non-EU countries, up 8.4%.

Commodity imports from EU member states increased 10% to 75.6 billion kuna, while those from non-EU countries decreased 5.4%% to 17.3 billion kuna.

Expressed in euros, Croatia's commodity exports totalled 7.3 billion euro, up 5.3% on the year, while imports went up 7% to 12.5 billion euro in the 2019 H1. The foreign trade deficit stood at 5.2 billion euro, up from the 4.7 billion euro in the 2018 H1.

Commodity exports to EU member states totalled 4.96 billion euro, up 3.8% on the year, and 2.4 billion euro to non-EU countries, up 8.5%.

Commodity imports from EU member states increased 10.2% to 10.2 billion euro, while those from non-EU countries decreased 5.3% to 2.3 billion euro.

Croatia's commodity exports in the first five months of 2019 totalled 45.9 billion kuna, up 7.6% on the year, while imports went up 10.5% to 79.2 billion kuna, according to the updated statistics.

The first results released by the DZS on 9 July showed that Croatia's commodity exports in the first five months of 2019 totalled 45.8 billion kuna, up 7.4% on the year, while imports went up 9.8% to 78.7 billion kuna.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, April 28, 2019 - A study of foreign trade involving Croatian counties shows that last year foreign trade remained strongly concentrated on Zagreb, which accounted for nearly a third of total exports and nearly half of imports, and on a small number of other regions.

According to the study, conducted by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) and released earlier this week, Croatia exported 107.7 billion kuna worth of goods in 2018, of which 33.28 billion or 30.9% accounted for companies based in Zagreb. Imports totalled 175.5 billion kuna, and Zagreb's share was 48.9%, with companies based in the capital importing goods worth 85.8 billion kuna.

Croatia is divided into 20 counties plus the City of Zagreb as a separate administrative unit.

The study revealed that the first five largest exporting counties accounted for 53.3% of Croatia's total exports and the first ten counties for as much as 72.1%. The concentration of imports is even more pronounced as the top 5 ranking counties imported 71.5% of total imports and the top 10 as much as 83.3%.

"The value of exports generated by the City of Zagreb is 154 times that of Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the value of imports is as much as 596 times higher than that of Lika-Senj County, the county with the least imports. The value of per-capita exports in the top ranking Međimurje County is as much as 26 times higher than in Dubrovnik-Neretva County," the study noted.

Eleven counties generated a trade surplus, the highest being posted by Sisak-Moslavina County with 1.27 billion kuna. The largest deficit was recorded by the City of Zagreb, of 52.5 billion kuna, which mostly affected the national foreign trade balance as last year Croatia recorded a foreign trade deficit of 67.8 billion kuna.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, October 9, 2018 - Croatia's Jan - Aug exports amounted to 69.6 billion kuna, rising by 3.9% compared to the corresponding period in 2017 whereas imports amounted to 115.9 billion kuna or up 6.9%, according to preliminary figures released by the State of Bureau of Statistics (DZS) on Tuesday.

ZAGREB, September 7, 2018 - Croatia's exports reached 60.7 billion kuna in the first seven months of 2018, up 3.2% over the same period in 2017, while imports increased by 6.2% to 101.6 billion kuna, the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) said on Friday.