May 31 (SeeNews) - Croatia's annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth quickened to 2.7% in the first quarter from 1.9% in the preceding quarter, a flash estimate released by the country's State Statistics Office on Tuesday showed.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, Croatia's economy expanded by 2.3% year-on-year and 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, following a 2.0% annual growth and a 0.6% quarterly contraction in the fourth quarter of 2015.
"The largest positive contribution to the GDP volume change in the first quarter of 2016 was realised in the increase of the exports of goods," the stats office said in a statement.
Export of goods rose 9.4% on the year, slowing from a 14.4% increase in the fourth quarter of 2015. On the other hand, growth in household consumption quickened to 3.1% from 2.4% and that of investments in the economy accelerated to 4.3% from 3.7%.
The contribution of domestic demand to the realised GDP volume change was positive (2.8 percentage points), while the contribution of net foreign demand was negative, the stats office said.
In 2015, Croatia's GDP increased by a real 1.6%, reversing a contraction of 0.4% in 2014.
The statistics office said it will publish detailed Q1 GDP data on June 7.