The Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) published a report on retail trade on Friday, indicating that in May, according to seasonally adjusted data, consumption increased by 0.6 percent compared to the previous month, while it rose 8.4 percent compared to May of last year.
Thus, retail consumption increased for the 14th consecutive month on an annual basis, albeit at a slightly slower pace than the previous month, when the growth was 8.6 percent.
In this context, the turnover from the retail trade of food, beverages, and tobacco products rose by 4.6 percent, while the turnover from the trade of non-food products, excluding motor fuels and lubricants, jumped by 11.4 percent, according to DZS data.
In the first five months of this year, retail trade turnover increased by 8.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
As consumption is the largest component of gross domestic product (GDP), the strong growth in retail trade in April and May indicates a continuation of stable economic growth in the second quarter of this year.
DZS recently announced that, thanks primarily to the increase in consumption and investments, the Croatian economy grew for the 13th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, by 3.9 percent year-on-year.
