ZAGREB, 7 July, 2021 - Croatia's stockpiles of finished industrial goods in May 2021 were 0.5% higher than in the previous month and 2.5% higher than in May 2020, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

Broken down by main industrial groupings, compared with April 2021, stockpiles of durable consumer goods increased the most, by 7.1%. Stockpiles of energy rose by 2.9% and those of intermediate goods and non-durable consumer goods increased by 0.2%. At the same time, stockpiles of capital goods fell by 2.3%.

Compared with May 2020, stockpiles of energy increased by 41% and those of non-durable consumer goods by 11%, while stockpiles of durable consumer goods fell by 18.6%, those of intermediate goods by 11.1% and stockpiles of capital goods by 7.8%.

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June 21st, 2021 - Forests covered about 2.75 million hectares of land in Croatia in 2020, which is nearly the same as in 2019, and a total of 5.2 million cubic meters of wood was produced, with wood production down by 3.1%, according to data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

The total amount of coniferous trees cut down last year was 876,000 cubic meters, down by 9.2% from the previous year, while the logging of deciduous forests fell by 1.7% to 4.36 million cubic meters.

Fuelwood production, including wood for charcoal, increased by 0.1% to 2.2 million cubic meters. On the other hand, industrial wood production declined by 5.3% to 3 million cubic meters.

The DZS figures also show that the total value of timber sold in 2020, compared with 2019, fell by 5.2% to HRK 1.9 billion, with average prices dropping by 3.3% to HRK 369 per cubic meter.

The fall in the total value of timber sold last year resulted from the fall in the value of industrial wood of 9.6%. The total value of industrial wood sold in 2020 was HRK 1.4 billion.

(€1 = HRK 7.488)

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ZAGREB, 4 June 2021 - Croatian citizens made half as few private and business trips of several days in 2020 than in 2019 due to the pandemic, on which they spent 57% or HRK 5.4 billion less, and they spent HRK 1.35 billion or 60% less on one-day trips, show data from the national statistical office (DZS).

The data from the DZS on the tourist activity of the population in 2020 show that 62.4% of the Croatian population did not make private trips of several days and as many as 95.3% did not make business trips, which was mostly due to the pandemic and uncertainty about health.

Last year, 1.3 million Croatian citizens made trips, a million of them made trips in Croatia, while others either made trips abroad or both, and an equal number of trips were made by men and women.

In 2020, a total of 3 million private and business trips of several days were made, down 50% compared to 2019, 19.5 million overnight stays were generated, down 40%, and HRK 5.4 billion was spent, down 57%.

Most of those trips, 2.8 million, were private, down 55% from 2019, and HRK 4.6 billion was spent on them (down 50%).

Business trips of several days saw an even sharper drop due to the pandemic, with only 216,000 made in 2020, down 74% from 2019, and HRK 703 million was spent on them (down 77%). The number of business trips made in Croatia dropped by 62% and the number of those made abroad fell by 85%.

Croatian citizens made 3,9 million one-day private and business trips in 2020, down 50% from 2019, and they spent HRK 1.35 billion on them (down 60%).

Of that total expenditure, HRK 1 billion was spent on one-days trips in Croatia, which accounted for most of the one-day trips made, or 3.3 million.

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ZAGREB, 7 May, 2021 - Croatia exported the commodities worth 30 billion kuna in the first three months of 2021, which was 9.5% more in comparison to the corresponding period in 2020, whereas the imports rose 2.1% to HRK 46.5 billion, the national statistical office (DZS) reported on Friday.

As a result, Croatia's foreign trade deficit in Q1 2021 narrowed by nine percent to HRK 16.45 billion compared to the 2020 Q1.

The coverage of the import by the export was 64.6%.

In the first three months of 2021, HRK 20.7 billion worth of goods was exported to the EU, 8.9% more on the year, and HRK 9.3 billion to non-EU countries (+10.9%).

The import of goods from the EU totalled HRK 36.7 billion, which was the same level as in the corresponding period of 2020, while import from other countries rose 11.4% to HRK 9.7 billion.

Expressed in euros, Croatia's goods export totalled €3.97 billion, up 7.9%, while import increased 0.6% to €6.1 billion.

The foreign trade deficit was €2,2 billion.

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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, 5 March, 2021 - The value of construction work done by companies with at least 20 employees in 2020 rose by 6.8% from 2019, while at the same time the value of new orders fell by 6.9%, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) said on Friday. 

The value of construction work done last year was HRK 27.1 billion, of which HRK 19.1 billion worth of work was performed by companies' own workers and HRK 8 billion worth by subcontractors. The value of new orders was HRK 21.4 billion.

The structure of the work carried out by own workers shows that 30.8% of the work done related to non-residential buildings, 34% to transport infrastructure, 17% to pipelines, communication and energy lines, and 15% to residential buildings.

In the last quarter of 2020, the value of construction work was 3.7% higher than in the same period in 2019, while the value of new orders fell by 19.5%. The value of the work done in Q4 2020 totalled HRK 7.42 billion, of which HRK 5.24 billion accounted for the work done by own workers and HRK 2.17 billion for the work performed by subcontractors.

The value of new orders in the fourth quarter of last year was HRK 5.38 billion, of which HRK 2.47 billion accounted for buildings and HRK 2.84 billion for other structures.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

ZAGREB, 5 March, 2021 - The Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) has put its proposal to amend the Census Act to public consultation until 12 March, under which this year's census would be held from 13 September to 17 October.

Under the existing law, the census was to be conducted from 1 April to 7 May, but was postponed until June because of the coronavirus pandemic and last year's earthquakes. It has now been further postponed until September, with the DZS recommending that it be conducted from 13 September to 17 October based on the situation as at 31 August at midnight.

The census would be conducted in two phases. The first phase would take place from 13 to 26 September, when citizens would fill in the census form online using the e-Citizens application, while the second phase would be held from 27 September to 17 October and would include personal interviews by census-takers.

The previous census was taken in 2011.

ZAGREB, 26 February, 2021 - Croatia's GDP contracted by a record 8.4% in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, with the decline slowing down in the last quarter compared to the previous quarters of the year, the State Bureau of Statistics (DZS) reported on Friday.

GDP fell by 7% in the fourth quarter of 2020 year on year. The decline was slightly lower than forecast by analysts.

Six analysts polled by Hina projected the Q4 GDP decline at 7.3%, their estimates ranging from 6.5% to 8.3%.

It was the third quarter in a row that GDP had fallen on the year, resulting from restrictive measures aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the fall in Q4 was less than in the preceding quarters. GDP contracted by 15.4% in Q2, the biggest drop since 1995 when DZS started tracking such data, while dropped by 10% in Q3.

GDP contracted by a record 8.4% for the entire year. Before that, the record fall of 7.3% was recorded at the start of the 2009 global financial crisis.

ZAGREB, 29 January, 2021 -  Retail sales in Croatia in December 2020 fell by 3.2% compared to December 2019, falling for the tenth month in a row and even faster than in November, the State Bureau of Statistics (DZS) reported on Friday.

According to seasonally adjusted data, consumption in December contracted by 0.8% compared to November and by 3.2% compared to December 2019.

Impacted by the coronavirus crisis, it was the tenth month in a row that retail sales had declined, after registering a contraction of 0.7% in November.

Retail sales of non-food products in December, excluding motor oils and lubricants, fell by 5.5% on the year, while sales of food, beverages and tobacco products increased by 4.7%.

Retail trade for the entire year fell by 5.8% in real terms.

Recession continues

The continued contraction in retail sales in December was due to weak personal consumption in the current coronavirus crisis.

The drop in consumption is one of the leading causes of recession as personal consumption is the largest component of gross domestic product (GDP).

Year on year, GDP plunged by a record 15.4% in Q2 2020 and by 10% in Q3 2020.

Restrictive measures imposed at the end of November to contain the second wave of the coronavirus infection had a negative impact on the economy in Q4 too, with the recession continuing in that quarter as well.

ZAGREB, November 22, 2020 - Despite the fact that Croatia's economy somewhat recovered from the record decline in the second quarter, thanks to activities after the lockdown, analysts estimate that in the third quarter it also fell at a double digit rate compared to the previous year.

The national statistical office (DZS) will release at the end of next week the first estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) for Q3, and seven analysts who took part in Hina's survey expect a drop in GDP of 10.4% on the year.

Their estimates of the decline range from 9.5% to 11%.

Economy in recession

That will be the second quarter in a row that the economy declines on the year, which means it has entered a recession, but the decline will be milder compared to the record 15.1% drop in the previous quarter.

The record decline in Q2 was a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic and restrictive measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus, which paralysed economic activity from the second half of March to the end of April.

"When the measures were relaxed in June, and especially during the summer months, most activities already started to recover. First high-frequency indicators confirm that Q3 will see a growth compared with the period from March to June, but a relatively steep decline in GDP on the year is inevitable," one of the analysts said.

Personal consumption continues to decline

The decline is mainly due to weak personal consumption, which is the largest component of GDP. Data from the national statistical office show that retail trade turnover fell by 7.6% in Q3 compared to the same period last year.

"That is mainly a consequence of trends in hospitality services, which didn't manage to compensate for losses caused by the closure of the economy even during the summer months, and tourist spending was markedly lower compared to the previous year," it was said in the survey.

Even though the summer tourist season was slightly better than expected at the start of the coronavirus crisis, the decline in tourist turnover was sharp.

According to the DZS's data, there were 6.6 million tourists in commercial accommodation establishments in the first nine months of 2020, which is a drop of about 63% from the same period last year, while the number of tourist nights dropped by 54% to 39.7 million.

The decline in industrial production also had a negative effect on GDP. In the past quarter, production dropped by 1.3% on the year.

That is a consequence of weak domestic demand, as well as foreign demand, as indicated by the decline in exports since the start of the year.

According to the DZS's data, the value of exports of goods in the first nine months of 2020 totalled about HRK 80 billion, which 4.8% less compared to the same period last year, while imports dropped by 10.1%, to approximately HRK 126 billion.

"High levels of uncertainty and worsening expectations also curbed stronger investment, while government spending is the only GDP component that is mitigating the negative trends on the demand side with its growth," one of the analysts said in Hina's survey.

Second wave of corona crisis

Because of the second wave of coronavirus spreading in Croatia and Europe, analysts also expect an economic decline in Q4 compared to the previous year.

It is expected that holiday spending and tourist activity will weaken due to epidemiological measures.

In addition, a further decline in exports and imports is expected, given the new restrictive measures introduced in most European countries due to the second wave of coronavirus, as is recession in Croatia's largest trading partners, Italy and Germany.

Deep, but brief recession?

Because of all this, a record decline in economy is expected in the entire 2020.

According to Hina's survey, seven analysts on average estimate that in the entire 2020 the economy could decline by 9.2%. Their estimates of the decline range from 8% to 10%.

The estimates of the decline have slightly decreased since three months ago analysts on average expected a drop of 10.5%.

According to one analyst, some of the reasons for that include a somewhat salvaged main tourist season, the resilience of construction (more) and industry (less) to negative trends, reduced gap in trade in goods (goods exports more resilient than imports) and, finally, the government's fiscal impulse through wage subsidies and maintaining household income levels, as well as the moratorium on loan repayment.

Despite being mitigated, this year's economic downturn could be greater than during the 2009 financial crisis, when the GDP dropped by a record 7.4%.

The government itself expects a greater drop in economy than in 2009, so it estimates that the GDP will decline by 8%.

The Croatian National Bank also expects a drop of about 8%, while the European Commission estimates that Croatia's economy will decline by 9.6% this year.

While the drop in GDP in 2020 will likely be deeper than during the global financial crisis, it is expected that this recession will be shorter. Then, the recession lasted for six years, while this time the economy is expected to grow as soon as next year.