Imports increased by 10 percent.
Croatia’s exports of goods increased in January by nearly 27 percent compared to the same month last year, while imports grew by 10 percent. The high growth rates were primarily due to the significant growth of trade with countries outside the European Union, according to data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics, reports Večernji List on March 10, 2017.
According to the report published on Friday, Croatia in January exported goods to foreign markets worth a total of 7.4 billion kuna, which is 26.6 percent more than in January last year. At the same time, the value of imports exceeded 10.7 billion kuna, which is 9.9 percent more year-on-year. As a result of such developments, the initial data show that the trade deficit in January decreased by 15 percent year-on-year to 3.33 billion kuna, while the export-import ratio increased by 9.1 percentage points – from last year’s 59.9 percent to 69 percent in January this year.
Strong growth of the total exports was a result of the increase in exports to countries which are not members of the European Union by as much as 63.3 percent, to 2.78 billion kuna. However, Croatian exports to EU member states also increased strongly, by 11.5 percent to 4.6 billion kuna.
The Central Bureau of Statistics also published the final data on foreign trade for all of 2016, confirming that last year was the third consecutive year with an increase in the exports of goods, although the annual rate of 5.7 percent much lower than 11 percent in 2015. According to the latest data, Croatian exports last year, expressed in kuna, increased by 5.7 percent to 92.8 billion kuna, while imports increased by 5.4 percent to 148.3 billion kuna. Croatian foreign trade deficit in 2016 amounted to 55.5 billion kuna and was 4.7 percent higher compared to 2015. The export-import ratio at the end of last year was 62.6 percent and was slightly higher than the 62.4 percent rate at the end of 2015.
Expressed in euros, Croatian exports in 2016 increased by 6.9 percent to 12.32 billion euros, while imports rose by 6.5 percent to nearly 19.7 billion euros. Consequently, the trade deficit denominated in euro amounted to 7.36 billion euros, which is 5.9 percent higher than at the end of 2015.
The most important trade partners of Croatia were members of the European Union, which represented 66.4 percent of last year’s exports and more than 77.2 percent of imports. Individually, Croatia’s main trade partners were Germany, Italy and Slovenia. Exports to CEFTA countries amounted to 2 billion euros, which was a decline of 2.1 percent, while imports from these countries increased by 15 percent to 1.16 billion euros.
