Croatia’s industrial production grew by 2.6 per cent in May, the fastest growth of industrial production in the EU, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat.

BalkanInsight, 15th July 2015

According to the EU statistics agency, Croatia saw 2.6 per cent growth in industrial production in May, the highest monthly growth rate in the EU. The report published on Tuesday said  Lithuania came in second place with growth of 1.7 per cent and Portugal came third with growth of 1 per cent in May. Bulgarian industry fell 0.5 per cent in May, while in Romania it fell by 0.1 per cent.

In Ireland, industrial growth fell by 6.9 per cent in May, in The Netherlands’s in 5.7 per cent and in Greece’s by 5.1 per cent in comparison with April. Eurostat reported that industrial production fell by 0.3 per cent in the EU overall.

According to the report, Croatia’s industrial production in May was 4.4 per cent bigger than in May 2014, the biggest annual improvement since December 2014. In the same period, Bulgarian industry grew by 3.9 per cent, while Romania grew by 2 per cent.

On the EU level, industrial production grew by 2 per cent on an annual level. Malta’s industrial production grew most, by 9.5 per cent. The biggest annual fall in industrial production was recorded in The Netherland – 7.4 per cent – Finland (5.1 per cent) and Ireland (5 per cent).

The Austrian Raiffeisen Bank estimates that Croatian industrial production could grow by 1.5 per cent a year in 2015, which would mark a second consecutive year of growth in industrial production on a national level. Croatia’s industrial production grew by 1.3 per cent in 2014 compared to 2013, ending a five-year-long decline in production.