Industrial production in the European Union increased by 1.1 percent in September 2018 compared with the same month last year, posting growth for 61 months in a row. Meanwhile, Croatia was among the EU countries which recorded the largest year-on-year drops, Eurostat reported on Thursday.

Year-on-year, EU industrial production rose by 1.1 percent in September, following an increase of 1.3 percent in August.

“The increase marks a continued upward trend in EU industrial production which has been going on since September 2013. During that time, it recorded stagnating figures only once, in November 2014,” the Croatian Chamber of Economy (HGK) said on Thursday, commenting on the Eurostat report.

Across the 28-country bloc, production of capital goods rose the most, by 2.4 percent, while the largest decrease, of 1.4 percent, was recorded in the production of durable consumer goods.

By country, the highest year-on-year increases in industrial production in September were registered in Ireland (9.4 percent), Poland (5.0 percent) and Denmark (4.3 percent). The largest drops were in Malta (5.3 percent), Croatia (2.6 percent) and the Netherlands (2.3 percent).

In August 2018, Croatia had also registered a year-on-year drop in industrial production of 1.1 percent.

In September 2018, compared the previous month, EU industrial production fell by 0.2 percent. The production of capital goods was the only sector to see a slight rise, of 0.1 percent, while the largest drop was recorded in the production of non-durable consumer goods, of 1.0 percent.

By country, the largest month-on-month drops in industrial production were registered in Latvia (3.3 percent), Lithuania (3.1 percent) and Portugal (2.8 percent), while the highest increases were in Denmark (2.8 percent), Ireland (2.2 percent) and the Netherlands (1.2 percent).

Croatia recorded a 1.5 percent month-on-month decline in industrial production in September.

“In the first nine months of this year, industrial production in the EU was 2.2 percent higher on average than in the same period of 2017, while in Croatia it was 0.2 percent lower. This represents a slowdown in growth rates compared to the beginning of the year, when the growth rate was 3.2 percent,” HGK said.

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