Manufacturing Industry Increased Exports by 23 Percent in the First Seven Months

The turbo-dynamic growth of Croatia’s foreign trade with the world, driven by inflation, high energy prices, and the fact that neighboring countries are supplied with liquefied gas through the LNG terminal on Krk, continued into the summer months. According to preliminary results from the DZS for the first eight months of this year, Croatian exports have increased 34.4 percent, while imports have surged 51.5 percent.

Although, according to more precise data for the first seven months of this year, the mining and extraction sector stands out with export and import growth (exports increased by 116 percent to 1.26 billion euros, and import growth was nearly tripled compared to the first seven months of last year, amounting to 2.76 billion euros), the majority of foreign trade continues to be generated by the manufacturing industry, whose exports during this period grew at a rate of 23 percent, reaching 10.8 billion euros. Within the manufacturing industry, the best export result in the first seven months, valued at 977 million euros, was achieved by the production of electrical equipment. This result is particularly significant as the import of electrical equipment during this time was only slightly over a hundred million higher than exports, placing this sector among the very few that do not exhibit a high foreign trade deficit.

The production of food products by export value (976 million euros) is on par with electrical equipment, but with the difference that food imports accelerated, especially ahead of the summer tourist season, resulting in a deficit of nearly 870 million euros recorded in this item of foreign trade exchange in the first seven months.

High demand for wood raw materials in the first seven months resulted in a 40 percent increase in the export of these products (to 750 million euros), while the import of wood raw materials, although also significantly increased (44 percent), fortunately remains at a much lower level (329 million euros). In contrast, furniture exports grew less than the average of the manufacturing industry, reaching 195 million euros, while furniture imports are one-third higher than exports.

The trend of export growth this year has bypassed three sectors within the manufacturing industry. The most important among them is the pharmaceutical industry, whose export value in the first seven months amounted to 642 million euros, or 0.5 percent less than in the same period last year. Surprisingly, drug imports did not explode either; they increased by only six percent, to just over one billion euros. The largest decline in exports (-12.7 percent) was recorded in shipbuilding, whose value was only 331 million euros.