Unexpectedly, the industrial production in Croatia in March this year was 1.7 percent down compared to March 2017, which is a fourth drop in the last five months, according to data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) published on Monday.

The industrial production in March has dropped by 4.3 percent compared to the previous month, and 1.7 percent year-on-year.

The results are weaker than expected, considering that three macroeconomists, participating in the Croatian News Agency’s (HINA) survey, expected the average growth of about 2.8 percent year-on-year. Their estimates went from 1-2 to 4 percent.

This is the forth production drop in the last five months. Only February 2018 posted a growth in production, of 3.3 percent.

“The volume of industrial production has, after solid growth in February, returned to the negative growth rates. With a monthly fall of 4.3 percent, the biggest drop since January last year, on a yearly level, the drop was 1.7 percent,” say the analysts of Raiffeisen Bank Austria (RBA), commenting on the DZS report.

Capital production has dropped the most in March, 20.6 percent, while energy production fell by 0.9, and intermediate production by 0.7 percent.

On the other hand, the production of permanent products for wide consumption was up by 19.7 percent, and the production of non-permanent products for wide consumption 7.9 percent, compared to last March.

“The data from the first trimester supported our expectations that the economic activity would mildly slow down,” the RBA analysts said.

They added that the national and overseas demand should see a mild growth acceleration in the coming periods.

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