Exporters have successfully adapted to EU standards.
Trade between Germany and Croatia recorded a significant increase in 2016, in particular with regards to the Croatian exports to Germany, announced on Thursday the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, reports Jutarnji List on March 2, 2017.
“Adjustment of Croatian businesses to EU standards has proven to be a painstaking process, but now we can see that these efforts have finally paid off”, said the president of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations (Ost Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft) Wolfgang Buechele.
According to the group which is in charge of economic relations with Eastern Europe, Croatia exported goods and services valued at 1,407,377,000 euros, which is 17.1 percent more than in 2015. At the same time, Croatia imported goods and services from Germany in 2016 in the amount of 2,952,155,000 euros, which was an increase of 12.1 percent compared to the previous year.
The press release states that in 2016 the trade exchange with the whole of southeast Europe increased substantially, in particular with EU member states Romania and Croatia. “We hope that successful reform efforts and the fight against corruption will continue despite internal political turmoil”, said the group specifically for Romania, but adding that the same applied to Croatia as well.
The most important market for Croatian products is the European Union as a whole, to which Croatia in the first nine months of 2016 exported goods worth about 5.9 billion euros, or 4.8 percent more than in the first nine months of 2015. Imports from the EU member states also increased, by 5.4 percent to 11.3 billion euros. Individually, the most important Croatian foreign trade partners are Germany, Italy and Slovenia.
In the first nine months, Croatia exported to Italy goods worth 1.2 billion euros or 6.3 percent more than in the same period in 2015, while imports of goods from that country increased by 2.5 percent to 1.9 billion euros. As for Slovenia, exports increased by 4.9 percent to 1.1 billion euros, and imports by 9.1 percent to 1.6 billion euros.
Exports to CEFTA countries in the first nine months of last year amount to 1.5 billion euros, or 2.5 percent less than in 2015, while imports from these countries increased by 10.3 percent to 830.3 million euros.
