Croatia, along with Latvia and the Netherlands, was one of the three European Union countries with the highest month-on-month increase of industrial production in February 2018, Eurostat said on Friday.

Seasonally adjusted industrial output in the EU28 dropped in February by 0.7 percent from January, when it had inched down by 0.3 percent. The decrease is attributed to the 2.7 percent drop in the production of capital goods, 1.6 percent drop in durable consumer goods, and a 1.0 percent drop in intermediate goods. However, production of energy rose by 5.1 percent.

Among member states for which data is available, the highest increases were registered in Latvia and the Netherlands, at 3.9 percent, and Croatia, at 2.1 percent. The biggest drops in industrial production were in Lithuania (3.9 percent), Estonia (2.7 percent), Malta, and Portugal (2.3% percent each).

In year-on-year terms, industrial production in the EU28 was 3.1 percent up from February 2017, after a 3.7 percent yearly increase in January.

The increase was attributed to the production of energy which jumped by 4.6 percent from the same period last year, and to the rise in the production of capital goods by 3.2 percent.

By country, the highest year-on-year increase in industrial production was in Latvia (8.7 percent), followed by Poland (7.5 percent) and Slovenia (7.2 percent). The biggest drops were in Malta (7.7 percent), Greece (1.9 percent) and Bulgaria (1.0 percent).

Industrial production in Croatia in February 2018 was 3.3 percent higher than in February 2017, while in January it was 0.4 percent down on the year.