In March 2018 retail sales in Croatia grew by 2.1 percent year-on-year, posting an increase for the 43rd month in a row, the state statistics bureau said on Monday.

According to the bureau’s report on retail trade turnover which included working-day adjusted data, retail sales in March increased by 2.5 percent compared to February 2018, and by 2.1 percent from March 2017.

The growth rate was higher than in February, when it was 1.2 percent year-on-year, but still lower than had been expected. Macro-economists polled by the state news agency Hina had predicted on average March retail to rise by 2.3 percent compared to March 2017.

Overall, the figure means that the record-long positive trend of increasing retail sales continued, since the last drop in retail sales recorded in August 2014. The 43-month streak is also the longest period of retail growth on record.

By type of goods, the retail sales of food, drinks, and tobacco products grew by 3.8 percent year-on-year in March, while retail sales of non-food products grew by 2.8 percent.

In the three months from January to March 2018, retail grew by 3.1 percent compared to the same period the year before.

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