ZAGREB, 30 May 2022 - Croatia's commodity export in 2021 totalled HRK 144.3 billion, up by HRK 32 billion or 29% on the year, while import was valued at HRK 214 billion, up by 42 billion of 24%, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) reported on Monday.

The foreign trade deficit was around HRK 70 billion, increasing by about HRK 9 billion (+16%) from 2020.

The export-import ratio was 67.5% in 2021, whereas in 2020 it was 65%.

With a share of 81% in the total export in 2021, the manufacturing industry generated an increase in exports of about 21%, to HRK 116.3 billion thus contributing the most to overall export trends.

The manufacturing industry contributed the most also to import growth in 2021, accounting for 87% of all imports and an increase in imports of 19% from 2020, to HRK 186.4 billion.

Croatia's most important foreign trade partners in 2021 were EU member states, for 70% of the total exports and about 77% of the total imports.

In 2021, commodity exports to the EU totalled HRK 100 billion, up 31.3% on the year, while imports increased by 20.1% to HRK 163.9 billion.

The biggest foreign trade partners from the EU in 2021 were Germany, Italy and Slovenia.

Trade of goods with non-EU member states accounted for about 30% of the total export in 2021, an increase of about 23%, and for about 23% of the total import, which increased by about 39% compared to 2020.

The biggest foreign trade partners outside the EU in 2021 were Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United States and Serbia.

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ZAGREB, 16 May 2022 - Of 311,698 registered business entities in Croatia, 172,438 or 55.3% were active in March 2022, according to data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

Most of the business entities were trading companies. At the end of March 2022, there were 234,561 trading companies registered, and 137,664, or 58.7%, were active.

There were 73,589 institutions, associations, and organizations, of which 33,965 or 46.2% were active, as well as 3,548 cooperatives, of which 809 were active, and 88,184 sole proprietorships and freelancers.

Out of 172,438 legal entities that were active at the end of March 2022, 66,497 or 38.6% had no employees. There were 88,205 legal entities (51.2% of the total number of active entities) with one to nine employees, 13,677 (7.9%) with 10 to 49 employees, 3,468 (2.0%) with 50 to 249 employees, while large business entities with 250 employees and more accounted for only 0.4%.

The structure of business entities by activity shows that more than half of registered and active businesses operated in four sectors – wholesale and retail trade and repairs of motor vehicles and motorcycles (17.7% of registered businesses and 16.0% of active ones), manufacturing (7.8%; 8.9%), professional, scientific and technical activities (10.2%; 12.6%), and other services (16.2%; 13.1%).

Broken down by type of ownership, 79.1% of businesses were privately owned, 0.8% were state-owned, 0.4% were in mixed ownership, 0.5% were cooperatives, while the ownership of 19.2% of businesses was not tracked.

A total of 168,599 business entities were registered as limited liability companies (71.9%) and 100,979 of them were active (73.4%). There were also 63,031 simple limited liability companies (26.9%) and 35,164 of them were active (25.5%).

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ZAGREB, 29 April (2022) - Retail sales in Croatia continued to rise in March 2022 for the 14th month in a row and at a faster rate than in February, indicating further recovery of the national economy, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) reported on Friday.

Retail sales increased by 2% from February 2022 and by 3.6% compared with March 2021.

March 2022 was the 14th consecutive month to see a year-on-year increase in spending, and at a faster rate than the month before, when it increased by 0.3%.

"The uncertainty and high inflationary pressure have already impacted individual... indicators such as retail turnover, with its average real growth rate in the first quarter having slowed down to 2%,"  analysts at Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) said in their comment on the DZS report.

Consumer confidence has deteriorated due to inflation growth and the war in Ukraine.

On the other hand, employment will continue to grow and unemployment to decrease at moderate rates, the analysts said.

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ZAGREB, 6 Oct, 2021 - Croatia's industrial producer prices jumped by 12.1% in September 2021 compared with the same month in 2020, their highest rise since January 2011, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

This was the seventh month in a row to see an increase in industrial producer prices on an annual level, following the 9.3% rise in August.

The positive streak began in March this year with an annual rise of 3.5% and was followed by increases of 5.8% in April, 7.6% in May, 7.2% in June and 7.9% in July. 

The rise was mainly driven by energy prices. Excluding energy, producer prices in September were 0.5% higher than in August and 3.5% higher than in September last year.

On the foreign market, industrial producer prices in September 2021 increased by 1.0% compared with August 2021 and by 10.1% compared with September 2020. On the domestic market, they rose by 3.2% month on month and by 13.7% year on year.

Broken down by main industrial groupings, in September compared with August, prices of energy on the domestic market increased by 9.4%, prices of capital goods by 0.5%, prices of intermediate goods by 0.4%, prices of durable consumer goods by 0.1%, and prices of non-durable consumer goods by 0.1%.

On an annual level, prices of energy on the domestic market rose by 42.2%, prices of intermediate goods by 6.2%, prices of durable consumer goods by 2.5%, prices of capital goods by 2.5%, and prices of non-durable consumer goods by 1.2%.

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ZAGREB, 1 Oct 2021 - The average price of arable land in Croatia in 2020 amounted to HRK 25,930 per hectare, which is HRK 746 more than in 2019, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) reported on Friday.

The statistics indicate that in 2020 the average price of meadows increased by HRK 3,326 to HRK 17,289 per hectare and of pastures by HRK 2,193 to HRK 15,651 per hectare.

In the Pannonian Croatia, the average price of arable land purchased in 2020 was HRK 26,416 per hectare, of meadows HRK 18,868 per hectare and of pastures HRK 10,720 per hectare.

The average price of arable land along the Adriatic coast was HRK 33,640 per hectare, of meadows HRK 13,957 per hectare and of pastures HRK 20,423 per hectare.

In northern Croatia, the average price of arable land was HRK 22,518 per hectare, the average price for meadows was HRK 18,981 per hectare and for pastures HRK 16,986 per hectare.

The DZS notes that its data is based on Tax Administration data on farmland purchases.

(€1 = HRK 7.491)

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ZAGREB, 28 Sept, 2021 - A total of 1.637 million Croatian citizens have self-enumerated during the first phase of the 2021 census of the population, households and dwellings, which is more than 40% of the total population, the national statistical office (DZS) said on Tuesday.

Most of the citizens who have self-enumerated are from the City of Zagreb, 489,138 or 60% of the city's total population, and from Split-Dalmatia County, where 165,678 citizens or 37% of the county's total population have self-enumerated.

Split-Dalmatia County is followed by Zagreb County, with 137,313 self-enumerated citizens (44%), and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, with 135,878 self-enumerated citizens (48%).

Citizens used the option of online self-enumeration the least in Lika-Senj County (10,400 or 23% of the county population), Virovitica-Podravina County (17,627 or 24% of the county population), and Požega-Slavonia County (17,724 or 27%).

In the second phase of the census, which starts on Tuesday, census-takers will be taking census data on the ground by visiting households and registering citizens, households and dwellings and taking from citizens who have self-enumerated control codes proving that they have successfully self-enumerated, the DZS said.

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ZAGREB, 21 Sept, 2021 - The volume of construction work in July 2021 was 6.5% higher than in July 2020, however it fell by 4.9% compared to June 2021, the State Bureau of Statistics (DZS) reported on Tuesday.

July was the 14th month in a row for the volume of construction work to increase on the year.

DZS data indicate that the volume of construction work done on buildings in July was 5.3% higher y-o-y whereas the volume of other structures increased by 8.1%.

Compared to June the volume of construction work contracted by 6.2% on buildings and by 3% on other structures.

In July, 61% of working hours on construction sites were conducted on new structures while 39% were for reconstruction, repairs and maintenance.

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ZAGREB, 1 Sept, 2021 - Croatia's industrial production rose in July for the eighth month in a row, growing by nearly 4% on an annual level, indicating further recovery of production and the entire economy from the coronavirus crisis.

The Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) reported on Wednesday that industrial production had shrunk by 1.6% in July compared with the previous month, while increasing by 3.9% compared with July 2020. This was slower growth than in June, when production had jumped by 8.3% year on year.

"Growth in the volume of industrial production continued in July, albeit at a slower rate compared with the previous months when stronger annual growth was the result of last year's low base," analysts at Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) said in their comment on the DZS report.

Growth was reported for three of five sectors. Energy production rose the most, by 13.1%, followed by production of non-durable consumer goods (+4.2%) and capital goods (+2.8%). Production of durable consumer goods and intermediate goods fell by 4.7% and 4.1% respectively.

After dropping by 3.4% last year, industrial production increased by 8.7% in the first seven months of this year compared with the same period of last year, contributing to the economic growth and recovery.

The data on further growth of industrial production, as well as recent figures on further growth of retail trade indicate continued recovery of the national economy from the coronavirus crisis. Last week, the DZS released data showing that GDP had jumped by a record 16.1% in the second quarter, its first growth after four quarters of decline.

"Although the epidemiological picture will continue to affect the pace of economic recovery, the growth of foreign and domestic demand and the industry confidence index, which continued to grow in July, nearing 2019's levels, confirm our expectations of a solid continuation of growth in the volume of industrial production until the end of the year," RBA said.  

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ZAGREB, 19 August, 2021 - The turnover of passengers at Croatian seaports in the second quarter of 2021 reaches 5.4 million, up 81.8% on the year and 41.9% more than in the same period in 2019, according to the national statistical office (DZS).

The port in Split recorded the highest number of passengers -- 739,970 -- which is 115.3% more than in the same period the year before.

The port in Zadar follows with 474,089 passengers or 63.8% more on the year.

Maritime freight increased by by 10.2% with Croatian ports handling 6.2 million tonnes of seaborne goods in the said period.

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ZAGREB, 21 July, 2021 - The volume of construction work carried out in Croatia in May 2021 rose 15.9% compared with May 2020, and it fell by 0.1% compared with April 2021, according to data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS) on Wednesday.

May was the 12th consecutive month to see the rise in the volume of construction work on an annual level.

Year on year, the volume of construction work to buildings increased by 18% and the volume of construction work to other structures grew by 13%. Month on month, the volume of construction work to buildings fell by 0.3%, while the volume of construction work to other structures decreased by 0.9%.

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