Croatia recorded one of the sharpest month-on-month declines in industrial production among European Union countries in July 2018, with a 5 percent fall, according to data released by the EU's statistics bureau, Eurostat.

Seasonally adjusted industrial production in the 28-country bloc decreased by 0.7 percent in July 2018 compared to June – when it had dropped by 0.5 percent. The July decline was due to the fall in the production of non-durable consumer goods by 1.3 percent, in durable consumer goods by 1.0 percent, and intermediate goods by 0.6 percent. At the same time, the production of energy rose by 0.7 percent, and of capital goods by 0.6 percent.

Industrial production also decreased in the 19-member euro zone, by 0.8 percent compared with June 2018, when it had also recorded the same month-on-month drop. The decrease was due to the production of durable consumer goods falling by 1.9 percent, non-durable consumer goods by 1.3 percent, and intermediate goods by 0.8 percent, while production of capital goods inched up by 0.8 percent, and energy by 0.7 percent.

By country, the largest month-on-month drops in industrial production were registered in Malta (6.3 percent), Croatia (5.0 percent) and Sweden (4.1 percent), and the highest increases were posted by Denmark (3.6 percent), Ireland (2.8 percent) and Latvia (1.8 percent).

In year-on-year terms, in July 2018 industrial production in the EU28 increased by 0.8 percent, following a 2.5 percent rise in June. Production of capital goods rose by 2.1 percent, intermediate goods by 0.6 percent, non-durable consumer goods by 0.5 percent, and durable consumer goods by 0.3 percent, while the production of energy dropped by 0.9 percent.

At the same time, industrial production in the euro zone dropped slightly by 0.1 percent, after increasing by 2.3 percent in June. The decrease was due to production of durable consumer goods falling by 2.3 percent, energy by 2.1 percent, non-durable consumer goods by 0.5 percent and intermediate goods by 0.1 percent, while the production of capital goods rose by 1.4 percent.

The highest year-on-year increases in industrial production in July 2018 were registered in Poland (7.9 percent), the Czech Republic (6.7 percent) and Slovenia (5.9 percent), while the largest drops were observed in Malta (6.4 percent), Ireland (6.2 percent) and the Netherlands (2.1 percent).

In Croatia, industrial production in July 2018 dropped by 0.8 percent year-on-year, following a 3.1 percent year-on-year increase in June 2018.

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