ZAGREB, 7 Sept, 2021 - The Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) Crobex index increased by 0.16% to 1,962 points on Tuesday, while the Crobex10 weakened by 0.01% to 1,204 points.

Regular turnover was HRK 5 million.

The most traded stock was the Arena Hospitality Group, turning over HRK 993,000. It closed at HRK 322 per share, up 1.9%.

Thirty-seven stocks traded today, with 14 gaining in price and 12 losing, while 11 were stable.

(€1 = HRK 7.492048)

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September the 1st, 2021 - The excellent tourist season which appears to just keep on going has pushed the Croatian retail sector out of the slump the global coronavirus pandemic had forced it into. Analysts are, unsurprisingly, very optimistic as a result.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes, after a record jump in GDP in the second quarter of 2021, the indicators for the beginning of the third quarter, the most generous part of the year for the economy, also look fairly positive. In July, retail spending rose 12.8 percent for the sixth month in a row, reflecting a good tourist season and good economic recovery.

Turnover in the Croatian retail sector (referring to trade, and calendar adjusted) during the month of July increased by 2.2 percent in real terms compared to the previous month. Half a year of consumption growth comes after the previous 11 months of decline, or 5.8 percent of the deficit in 2020.

Retail trade in food, beverages and tobacco products rose 12.8 percent in July, and the non-food segment (excluding fuels and lubricants) 9.1 percent year-on-year, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) calculated.

Raiffeisen Bank analysts point to the fact that last year, with which the trends are being compared and measured, the decline was large.

"Apart from the effect of the base period, the continuation of favourable trends is also the result of the good trends in tourism, moderately positive trends on the labour market, as indicated by data on consumer optimism, which, despite a slight deterioration when compared to June, continued to grow annually," they said.

The passage of time certainly provides for a decent dose of optimism for the performance of the economy in 2021 as Croatian GDP rose 16.1 percent in the second quarter, and perhaps more importantly, it was the first jump after four quarters of worrisome decline.

The Tax Administration's data on fiscalised receipts issued from the Croatian retail sector also show continued double-digit annual growth rates exceeding pre-covid levels, the RBA said, underscoring the good labour market situation and strong spending in tourism.

This continued growth, however, will depend on the development of the ongoing epidemiological situation, which is unfortunately deteriorating with warnings from the profession that we are entering the fourth wave with only 39.4 percent of the Croatian population having been fully vaccinated.

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