Croatia's real GDP growth picked up in the third quarter of 2019, the Croatian National Bank (HNB) said in a statement from a meeting of the HNB Council on Thursday.

The HNB Council discussed a report on the latest economic and monetary trends and adopted a semi-annual report on the financial situation, the degree of price stability and the implementation of monetary policy in the first half of 2019.

According to available monthly indicators, real GDP growth accelerated in the third quarter of 2019. Following stagnation in the second quarter, unemployment continued to decrease, while employment growth slowed. In the third quarter, nominal wage growth picked up slightly, with wages in the public and private sectors increasing, the central bank said.

The annual consumer price inflation rate in September remained at August’s level, at 0.8%.

Financing costs mainly continued to decrease, also thanks to the accommodative monetary policy stance. The annual rise in bank lending slowed to 3% at the end of September as a result of a decrease in corporate lending.

In the second quarter of 2019, the general government budget ran a surplus of slightly under HRK 2.5 billion, an increase of HRK 200 million compared with the same period in 2018. The strong revenue growth, backed by the favourable effect of growth in personal consumption and imports as as well as the greater use of EU funding, was offset by roughly equal growth in expenditure, the HNB said.