In Q4 2018 Croatia's GDP growth was a mere 2.3 percent year-on-year, slowing down from 2.8 percent in the Q3 2018, the state statistics bureau said on Wednesday.

Although this was the 18th quarter in a row which posted growth, the growth rate fell short of estimates of experts polled by the state news agency Hina, which had put the Q4 GDP figure at 2.6 percent.

According to the statistics bureau, the largest positive component in Q4 2018 was household spending, which was 3.9 percent up year-on-year, increasing from 2.7 percent year-on-year from the previous quarter.

The exports of commodities and services rose by 1.3 percent in Q4 2018 year-on-year. However, imports grew five times faster, and jumped by 6.6 percent over the same period twelve months ago.

The seasonally adjusted data showed that the country’s GDP inched up by merely 0.1 percent in Q4 2018 quarter-on-quarter. In 2018, Croatia’s GDP increased by 2.6 percent year-on-year, slowing down from 2017 when the economy reported a 2.9 percent growth.

The 2.6 percent GDP growth in 2018 falls short of the 2.8 percent projection from the latest European Commission forecast released earlier this month, which also put GDP growth in 2019 to 2.7 percent, and is also lower than central bank’s projection of 2.7 percent from December last year.

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