March the 31st, 2024 – Croatian consumption has grown for the eleventh consecutive month, with stable economic growth since the beginning of 2024.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, throughout the month of February 2024, Croatian consumption (retail) increased for the 11th month in a row at the annual level. It also occurred more rapidly than it did one month before, which indicates a stable growth of the economy in the first quarter of this year.
The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) published on a report recently on turnover in the country’s retail trade. That showed that in February, according to calendar-adjusted data, Croatian consumption in real terms increased by 1.1 percent compared to the previous month, while compared to February 2023, it grew by 9.1 percent.
As such, we can ascertain that Croatian consumption in retail grew for the 11th month in a row at the annual level, and faster than a month before, when that same growth stood at 7.9 percent.
At the same time, the turnover from the retail trade of food, beverages and tobacco products increased by 6.9 percent, while the turnover from the trade of non-food products, except for the trade of motor fuels and lubricants, jumped by 17.2 percent, recently published data from the CBS shows.
In the first two months of this year, turnover in retail trade increased by 8.5 percent compared to the same period last year.
Stable economic growth at the beginning of the year
As consumption is the largest component of gross domestic product (GDP), the strong growth in retail trade turnover in the first two months of this year indicates the continuation of stable economic growth in the first quarter of this year as well.
The CBS also recently announced that, thanks to the growth of consumption and investments, the Croatian economy grew for the 12th quarter in a row in the fourth quarter of last year, by 4.3 percent on an annual basis, which is significantly faster than in the previous quarter.
