Industrial Production Increased by 2.5 Percent in August

Industrial production in Croatia increased by 2.5 percent year-on-year in August, marking the 19th consecutive month of growth, and at a faster rate than the previous month. The Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) announced on Thursday that industrial production, according to seasonally adjusted data, fell by 1.2 percent compared to the previous month, while it increased by 2.5 percent compared to August of last year.

Good Results: Industrial Production Increased by 1.2 Percent, and Consumption by 4.5 Percent

This is a faster growth than expected. Four macroeconomists who participated in a Hina survey estimated that industrial production in August increased by an average of 2.0 percent year-on-year. Their growth estimates ranged from 1.0 to 3.2 percent. This is also a faster growth than a month earlier, when production increased by 1.2 percent, and it marks the 19th consecutive month of year-on-year growth, which has not been recorded since 2007.

– This confirms the trend of positive annual growth rates in industrial production that has been continuously present over the last nineteen months, analysts from Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) noted in their commentary on the DZS report.

Although Slower than Expected, Industrial Production Grows for the 16th Consecutive Month

In August, the production of intermediate goods saw the highest increase, rising by 6.5 percent year-on-year. Following this, energy production grew by 4.8 percent, while the production of non-durable goods for general consumption strengthened by 1.8 percent. On the other hand, the production of capital goods fell by 4.2 percent year-on-year, and the production of durable goods for general consumption decreased by 3.1 percent. In the first eight months of this year, industrial production increased by 4.3 percent compared to the same period last year. Thus, the trend of production growth, which has entered its third year, continues. Last year, industrial production increased by 2.6 percent, while the year before recorded a growth of 1.3 percent.

Industrial Production Increased for the 15th Consecutive Time, but Slower than the Previous Month

– Despite indications of a slowdown in certain components of industrial production during the third quarter, positive annual growth rates of total industrial production could continue until the end of the year, maintaining favorable trends in foreign demand, which will positively contribute to the expected GDP growth, analysts from RBA concluded.