For the 48th month in a row Croatian retail sales increased on a year-on-year basis. In August retail sales increased by a healthy 3.1 percent compared to the same month from last year. The State Statistics bureau released data on the retail sales in the country and it shows that the driving force for the retail sales increase was the new car market where sales grew by an impressive 31.5 percent.

Over the first eight months of this year, retail sales increased by 3.5 percent in real terms compared with the same period last year. The increase was buoyed by positive indicators from the labour market and tourism, the continued growth of nominal and real wages, as well as a modest recovery of loan activity.