A total of 795 building permits were issued in Croatia in May 2018, down 7.7 percent from the same month in 2017, and the estimated value of works for which the permits were issued was HRK 1.85 billion or 24.13 percent less than last year, according to the data from the National Bureau of Statistics (DZS).

“Despite the monthly increase, the decrease in the number of building permits continued for the second month in a row compared with last year,” Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) said in an analysis of the DZS data.

By type of structures, 661 permits (83.1%) were issued for buildings and 134 (16.9%) for other structures.

In the first five months of this year, 3,848 permits were issued, down 1.2% from the corresponding period last year. The estimated value of works for which the permits were issued was HRK 9.65 billion or 14.5% less than in 2017.

During that period, permits were issued for the construction of 4,663 apartments, which is 285 apartments fewer than last year.

The number of building permits issued is still about 20% below the levels of the pre-crisis 2008. This is confirmed by the share of construction in GDP, which fell from 7.8% in 2008 to 4.6% in 2017, RBA said.

(EUR 1 = HRK 7.39)