ZAGREB, 20 Feb 2022 - There were 307,413 business entities registered in Croatia at the end of December 2021, and 54.7% of them, or 168,242, were active, according to data from the national statistical office (DZS).

The majority of the registered entities were trade companies (230,741), of which 133,928 of 58% were active.

There were 73,113 institutions, bodies and organisations, of which 34,844 were active, while the number of cooperatives stood at 3,539, including 800 active ones.

At the end of December 2021, there were also 88,205 crafts and freelancers in Croatia.

Broken down by activity, the majority of business entities were in wholesale and retail trade, and the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, accounting for 17.8% of registered and 16.1% of active entities.

Manufacturing accounted for 7.8% of registered and 9% of active entities, while 10.2% of registered and 12.7% of active entities were in professional, scientific and technical activities.16.3% of registered and 13.2% of active entities were in other service activities.

Most active entities privately owned

Most legal entities were privately owned, a total of 132,582 or 78.8%. The state owned 0.8% of the entities, 0.4% had mixed ownership, 0.5% were owned by cooperatives, and 19.5% of the entities had no information about ownership type available.

Most of the active legal entities, 88,220 or 52.4% had between one and nine employees, while 62,278 or 37% of the entities had no employees. Furthermore, 13,683 entities had between 10 and 49 employees, 3,470 between 50 and 249, 319 between 250 and 499, and 272 entities had 500 or more employees.

Limited liability companies accounted for the largest share of business entities, with 166,209 registered and 98,630 active entities. They are followed by simple limited liability companies, with 61,614 registered and 33,791 active ones.

The largest number of registered business entities were based in the City of Zagreb (32.3%).

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ZAGREB, 12 March, 2021 - Croatia's industrial producer prices fell by 0.8% in February 2021 compared with the same month in 2020, while increasing by 1.4% from January 2021, according to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

The annual downward trend has been present since March 2020 when industrial producer prices dropped by 2.7% compared with March 2019. The 0.8% decrease in February 2021 is the lowest in the last 11 months, while the highest annual decline was recorded in May 2020, of 6.6%.

In February 2021, compared with January 2021, industrial producer prices rose by 1.3% on foreign markets, while compared with February 2020 they declined by 2.1%. On the domestic market, they increased by 1.4% compared with January 2021 and by 0.2% compared with February 2020.

Month on month, prices of energy grew the most, by 5.1%, followed by intermediate goods (+0.7%), capital goods (+0.2%), non-durable consumer goods (+0.1%) and durable consumer goods (+0.1%).

Year on year, industrial producer prices rose by 1.2% for capital goods, by 1.1% for intermediate goods and by 0.4% for durable consumer goods, while decreasing by 4.9% for energy and by 0.3% for non-durable consumer goods.

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ZAGREB, May 12, 2020 - The number of receipts issued in all activities covered by the fiscalisation system increased by 25% on the week and their value increased by 21%, whereas on the yearly level they recorded a double-digit fall, the latest figures from the Tax Administration show.

In the week from May 4 to 10, when the second round of lockdown restrictions were lifted, allowing hairdressers, beauty salons, barbers and pedicurists to reopen, among others, compared to the week from April 27 to May 3, the number of receipts in all activities increased by 25% to 27.7 million receipts issued and their value increased by 21% to HRK 2.8 billion.

The number of receipts issued in retail, vehicle and motorcycle repairs increased by 24% and their value increased by HRK 19.95 million, or 18.4%, to HRK 2.21 billion.

At the same time, receipts issued in hospitality and tourism increased by 33.7% or just over 720,000, and their amount went up 23% to HRK 44 million.

A comparison of the period from May 4 to 10 with the same period last year indicates that the number of receipts issued in all activities was down by 37% and their value by 20%.

Receipts issued in retail were down 23% and their value was 7% lower on the year.

In the accommodation and food preparation segments, the number of receipts issued decreased by 90% on the year, with a decrease in value of 89%.

Since the start of the coronavirus crisis in Croatia, in the period from February 24 to May 10, the number of fiscal receipts dropped by 38% and their value by 23% compared to the same period last year.

In that period, 293.2 million receipts were issued with a value of HRK 27.7 billion, while last year at the same time 469.6 million receipts were issued with a value of HRK 36.2 billion.

More economy news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, May 6, 2020 - A consumer confidence survey conducted in April by the Croatian National Bank (HNB) shows that consumer confidence indices have seen their strongest monthly and annual decreases since the bank started monitoring them.

The consumer confidence index in April was -32.2 points, which is its lowest level since May 2014, while the consumer expectations index was -42.1 points, its lowest level since August 2009. The consumer sentiment index was -23.5 points, the same as in June 2017.

The composite consumer confidence index in April dropped by 22.3 points from March and in relation to April 2019 it was 27.4 points down.

These are the strongest monthly and annual changes in consumer confidence indices since the HNB started monitoring them, analysts of Raiffeisenbank Austria have said.

The composite consumer expectations index, which mostly refers to worsened expectations regarding the overall state of the economy in the next 12 months, dropped by 30.4 points on the month and by 39.5 points on the year. Both decreases are historically the greatest.

The composite consumer sentiment index, which points to fluctuations in the financial status of households in the last 12 months and changes in expectations regarding the economic situation and investments, dropped by 12 points on the month. The last time the index dropped this much was in April 2002, when the monthly decline was 19.6 points. Compared to April 2019, the index dropped by 8.6 points, for the first time since February 2013.

Raiffeisenbank analysts say that the Croatian economy, too, has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and is facing a period of lower economic activity and recovery.

More economy news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, May 5, 2020 - Only 1,084 new passenger cars were sold in Croatia in April 2020, which is 87.4% fewer than in the same month in 2019, while 11,113 were sold since the start of the year, a decrease of 46.5% year on year, according to data provided by the Promocija Plus market research agency.

In the year to the end of April, Volkswagen (VW) was the best-selling car brand with 1,865 units sold, ahead of Skoda (1,674), Renault (739), Dacia (652) and Hyundai (555).

In April, the best-selling models were the Skoda Octavia (84 vehicles sold), the VW Golf (55), the VW T-Cross (32) and the Dacia Duster (32).

The low sales were due to the fact that all car dealerships were closed as part of restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first four months of 2020, 6,468 vehicles sold were powered by petrol, which is 58.2% of the total sales, 3,871 used diesel (34.8%), 75 were electric vehicles (0.7%) and 618 were hybrids (5.6%).

More economy news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, May 4, 2020 - The first wave of relaxing epidemiological restrictions since April 27 has led to an increased turnover in the retail and hospitality sectors compared to the week before, but annual figures are significantly lower, according to data from the Tax Administration.

Comparing the week from April 27 to May 3 with the week from April 20 to 26, the number of fiscal receipts in all activities increased by 3% while their overall amount increased by 6%.

A total of 22.1 million receipts were issued in all activities from April 27 to May 3, with a total value of HRK 2.3 billion.

The number of receipts issued in retail increased by 4% and their value rose by 8%.

Activities of providing accommodation and serving food increased by 6% on the week with regard to the number of receipts issued, the Tax Administration said.

The first wave of relaxing restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus epidemic took effect at the start of last week, allowing the retail sector, except for stores in shopping centres, to reopen.

As of Monday May 4, other activities such as hairdressers, barbers, pedicurists and the like were also allowed to reopen their businesses.

In the period from April 27 to May 3 there was a decrease of 49% in the number of receipts issued year on year and a decrease of 33% in value.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis in Croatia, from February 24 to May 3 the number of fiscal receipts issued decreased by 38%, with a 24% drop in value y-o-y.

This year 265.5 million receipts were issued in that period with a value of HRK 24.9 billion, whereas last year there were 425.5 million receipts issued with a value of HRK 32.6 billion.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, May 4, 2020 - The number of industrial workers in Croatia in March remained unchanged from February, while compared with March last year it fell by 2.7%, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

Month on month, the largest drop in the number of workers was recorded in tobacco production (-7.4%), while the textile industry registered the largest increase (+9.8%).

The year-on-year figures show that a majority of sectors recorded declines in employment, the sharpest fall being recorded in the manufacture of other means of transport and shipbuilding (-19.5%). The largest increases were observed in the textile industry (+7.9%) and the pharmaceutical industry (+5%).

In the first quarter of 2020, compared with the same period of 2019, the number of industrial workers decreased by 2.6%, while labour productivity shrank by 0.2%.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, April 30, 2020 - Consumption in Croatia in March dropped 7% from the same month of 2019, which is its biggest decline since 2010, when the economy was in a recession.

The national statistical office (DZS) on Thursday published a report on retail sales and according to working-day adjusted data, consumption in March dropped 11.7% from the previous month and by 7% in relation to March 2019.

This is a sudden change in trends considering that in February retail trade grew by 4.9% on the year.

The steep decline in consumption is due to restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which took effect in the second half of March.

A decline in retail trade of 7% had not been recorded since January 2010, when the economy was in a recession.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, April 30, 2020 - Industrial production in Croatia in March 2020 dropped for the fifth consecutive month, sliding by 4.9% from the same month of 2019, and much faster than the month before.

According to figures from the national statistical office, industrial output in March dropped by 2.8% from the previous month, while in relation to March 2019 it went down by 4.9%.

March was the fifth consecutive month to see a year-on-year decrease in industrial output, with the decline picking up in March as the month before industrial output dropped by 2.1%.

The production of durable consumer goods dropped the most year on year, by 23.5%, followed by the production of capital products, which decreased by 14.8%.

Only energy production saw an annual increase, of 9.8%.

In the first three months of this year, industrial output dropped by 4.2% in relation to the same period of 2019.

Since the Croatian economy is largely connected with the European economy, the strong contraction of economic activity in the EU will spill over to the national economy, analysts of Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) said.

The EU's statistical office Eurostat said on Thursday that the EU's GDP in Q1 had dropped by 2.7% from the same period of 2019 due to the coronavirus crisis, which is its greatest decline since the global financial crisis of 2009.

The RBA analysts said that trends in industrial production would depend on the success of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and the duration of restrictions on economic activity, which would slow down recovery.

After a modest growth rate of 0.5% in 2019, industrial output in 2020 could see a double-digit drop, the analysts said.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, April 27, 2020 - A total of 893 new passenger and light delivery vehicles were registered in Croatia in the first three weeks of April, a decline of 87.4% compared with the same month last year, the Promocija Plus market research agency said on Monday.

Between April 1 and 22, only 893 vehicles were registered (698 passenger cars and 195 light delivery vehicles), compared to 7,136 vehicles in April 2019.

A total of 12,888 new vehicles were sold from the start of the year to April 22, a decrease of 40% compared with the same period in 2019 when 21,542 new vehicles were sold.

In the year to April 22, the best-selling car brand was Volkswagen, with 2,172 units sold, ahead of Skoda (1,613), Renault (1,146), Dacia (730) and Citroen (639).

The decline in new car sales in April was expected as the economy was paralysed by restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

More economy news can be found in the Business section.