Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries had to take measures to mitigate its economic consequences. The measures for restricting the economic activities and the movement of people have affected the aggregates of quarterly national accounts as well as the quality and availability of many data sources that are commonly used in estimating the gross domestic product (GDP). Data show that the pandemic has largely led to a slowdown in Croatian economy since mid-March 2020.
However, since the second quarter of 2021, the economic activity has shown a continuous upward trend, and in the second quarter of 2022, GDP was 7.7% higher than in the same quarter of 2021. With that growth, the real GDP level in the second quarter of 2022 exceeded the level from the same period of 2019 and it increased in real terms by 7.3% in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the same quarter of 2019.
Nominal GDP growth in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the same quarter of 2021 amounted to 18.3%, which is the fastest dynamic of nominal growth and the largest difference (10.6 percentage points) between real and nominal growth rates in the last twenty years. Similar differences in real and nominal growth rates (10.5 percentage points and 10.4 percentage points) were last recorded in the first and the second quarter of 1998, that is, in the year in which VAT was introduced. The difference in GDP growth rates in this year's second quarter is a consequence of the high inflation rate, which reached double-digit numbers in May and June this year.
| X-axis | 2008 crisis | 2020 crisis |
|---|---|---|
| -1 | Q3 2008 | Q4 2019 |
| 0 | Q4 2008 | Q1 2020 |
| 1 | Q1 2009 | Q2 2020 |
| 2 | Q2 2009 | Q3 2020 |
| 3 | Q3 2009 | Q4 2020 |
| 4 | Q4 2009 | 1Q 2021 |
| 5 | Q1 2010. | Q2 2021. |
| 6 | Q2 2010. | Q3 2021. |
| 7 | Q3 2010. | Q4 2021. |
| 8 | Q4 2010. | Q1 2022. |
| 9 | 1Q 2011. | 2Q 2022. |
The first estimate shows that the quarterly gross value added (GVA) increased in real terms by 8.8% in the second quarter of 2022, as compared to the same quarter of 2021, based on non-seasonally adjusted data. The quarterly growth in GVA was recorded in almost all activities (an annual decrease was present only in Financial and insurance activities, of 0.6%) and it was mostly influenced by Wholesale and retail trade, Transportation and storage, and Accommodation and food service activities.
Household consumption increased in real terms by 7.7% in the second quarter of 2022, mainly due to an increase in turnover from catering services, transport services and retail trade.
After two quarters of growth, government spending decreased by 2.2% in real terms in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the same period of the previous year.
In the second quarter of 2022, the export of goods and services recorded a significant growth in real terms, of 41.9%, while the import of goods and services recorded a growth of 28.6% in real terms.
