Data on the movement of trade within the EU and its member states is essential for a better understanding of trends in Croatia’s trade. Namely, as Croatia’s export growth in the first eight months of this year has significantly slowed compared to the past two years, primarily due to falling global prices and the exhaustion of the effects of joining the European Union, it is interesting to see the trends in other EU member states.
To begin with, the value of exports and imports of the European Union in the first nine months of this year continues to decline; the value of exports decreased by 4.0%, and imports by 2.6%. Observing the structure according to the main groups of exported products, the most significant decrease was recorded in the value of energy (fuels) and machinery, equipment, and vehicles. However, a decline was noted in all observed groups, except for food and beverages.
On the other hand, as commented by HGK, the greatest impact on the reduction of import value was due to the import of fuels. The movement of import prices for the eurozone, which simultaneously indicates trends in the prices of exported products, shows that there was also a significant drop in the price of fuels and some raw materials on a global level in the nine months. Thus, the import prices of crude oil decreased by 26%, gas by about 20%, petroleum products by about 23%, coal and lignite by about 13%, and electricity by about 11%. At the same time, the prices of metallic ores decreased by approximately 10%, and base metals by approximately 9%. Such movements in the prices of fuels and raw materials also affected other types of products, resulting in no basic activity in NKD recording an increase in import prices greater than 0.8%, which was the case for clothing and non-metallic mineral products.
