After a period of stagnation, Croatia's GDP is expected to post strong growth in Q3 2021 quarter-on-quarter due to the successful tourist season, state agency Hina said on Friday citing a report from a meeting of the central bank's management on Thursday.

According to preliminary estimates released by the state bureau of statistics in August, Croatia’s GDP had increased by a record 16.1 percent in Q3 2021 year-on-year, although it shrank by 0.2 percent compared to the previous quarter.

In a press release, the central bank’s Council also commented on the inflation, which rose to 2.8 percent in July from 2 percent in June. According to the bank’s analysis, that was mostly the result of the acceleration of the growth of food prices, which can mainly be attributed to the spillover effect of rising prices of raw materials in the world market and unfavourable weather conditions, which reduced the domestic yield of certain crops.

The growth in total placements of monetary institutions to domestic sectors continued to accelerate from 3.8 percent in June to 4.1 percent in July, mirroring growing household lending, primarily in the form of housing loans.