Good economic statistics for May.
In May, consumer spending in Croatia rose by 3.5 percent year-on-year, which was faster than the month earlier and more than expected, continuing a record-breaking positive trend of 33 months of uninterrupted growth, reports Jutarnji List on 30 June 2017.
On Friday, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced its first estimate of retail trade turnover, which, in May, according to calendar-adjusted data, rose nominally by 5.9 percent, and by 3.5 percent in real terms compared to the same month last year.
The growth was faster than expected. Four macroeconomists who participated in a HINA survey projected average growth of 2.9 percent at an annual level. Their growth estimates ranged from 2.5 to 3.6 percent. This is also a faster growth than in the previous month when consumer spending increased by 2.8 percent.
May, therefore, continued the record-breaking trend of 33 months of uninterrupted growth, which has not been recorded since the Central Bureau of Statistics starting keeping these data.
“With a slight acceleration of growth, data for May have confirmed the continuity of positive growth rates which commenced in September 2014,” said Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) analysts in their review of the report. They pointed out that the favourable indicators of retail trade turnover were also contained in the recently published data of the Croatian National Bank on consumer perceptions.
In May, there was an improvement in the monthly and annual levels of all three composite indicators of consumer confidence. “Better indicators of consumer optimism are likely to be driven by expectations of record-breaking tourism achievements, which should lead to a series of positive effects on personal consumption, household income and the economy as a whole,” said the RBA analysts.
In the first five months of this year, consumer spending increased by 4.3 percent compared to the same period last year.
Industrial production in Croatia grew by 3.3 percent in May compared to the same month last month, which was much better than expected and represented a return to a positive trend, after the fall last month. It was expected that industrial production would record a small decline.
