Stocks of finished industrial products at the end of October this year were 7.9 percent higher than at the end of September, while compared to October last year, they increased by 13.7 percent, which is the highest year-on-year growth rate recorded this year, according to preliminary data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS).
Thus, in October, the acceleration of the year-on-year growth rate of stocks of finished industrial products, which began in March, further intensified. In March this year, stocks were 0.2 percent higher than in the same month last year, rising to 2 percent in April, 3.1 percent in May, 7.5 percent in June, and 8 percent in July and August, while in September it amounted to 9 percent. DZS data indicate an annual increase in stocks of finished industrial products in almost all major industrial groupings, except for durable goods for general consumption, where stocks in October this year decreased by 10.4 percent compared to the same month last year.
At the same time, energy recorded an increase of 31.1 percent, intermediate products by 14.9 percent, non-durable goods for general consumption by 12.3 percent, and capital goods by 9.4 percent. In the manufacturing industry, stocks of finished products at the end of October this year were 13.4 percent higher than a year earlier, while stocks in mining and quarrying increased by 21.1 percent. In food and beverage production, which accounts for almost one-third of total industrial activity in Croatia (32.82 percent), there was a year-on-year increase in stocks of 20.3 percent, and in the chemical industry (which has a share of 16.90 percent), by 9.3 percent. (H)
