ZAGREB, April 30, 2020 – Industrial production in Croatia in March 2020 dropped for the fifth consecutive month, sliding by 4.9% from the same month of 2019, and much faster than the month before.
According to figures from the national statistical office, industrial output in March dropped by 2.8% from the previous month, while in relation to March 2019 it went down by 4.9%.
March was the fifth consecutive month to see a year-on-year decrease in industrial output, with the decline picking up in March as the month before industrial output dropped by 2.1%.
The production of durable consumer goods dropped the most year on year, by 23.5%, followed by the production of capital products, which decreased by 14.8%.
Only energy production saw an annual increase, of 9.8%.
In the first three months of this year, industrial output dropped by 4.2% in relation to the same period of 2019.
Since the Croatian economy is largely connected with the European economy, the strong contraction of economic activity in the EU will spill over to the national economy, analysts of Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) said.
The EU’s statistical office Eurostat said on Thursday that the EU’s GDP in Q1 had dropped by 2.7% from the same period of 2019 due to the coronavirus crisis, which is its greatest decline since the global financial crisis of 2009.
The RBA analysts said that trends in industrial production would depend on the success of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and the duration of restrictions on economic activity, which would slow down recovery.
After a modest growth rate of 0.5% in 2019, industrial output in 2020 could see a double-digit drop, the analysts said.
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