Croatia's Gross Domestic Product in 2009 was 5.8 percent down in real terms from 2008, and in the last quarter of 2009 it was 4.5 percent down in real terms from the same period of 2008, according to a report released by the national statistics office DZS on Friday.
The DZS today published a GDP estimate for the last quarter of 2009, which includes provisional data for the entire year 2009.
The latest data show that household spending, the most important segment of GDP, last year dropped 8.5 percent.
Gross investments in fixed capital declined 11.8 percent, the export of goods and services dropped 16.2 percent, and the import of goods and services dropped 20.7 percent.
The only segment which saw an increase in relation to 2008 is government spending, which went up 0.2 percent.
The statistics for the last quarter of 2009 show that housing spending dropped by 7.5 percent from the same period of 2008, slightly more than in the third quarter, when housing spending dropped 6.9 percent from the third quarter of 2008.
In the last quarter of 2009, investments dropped 11.3 percent, while in the third quarter they declined 10.5 percent.
Imports decreased more than exports for the fifth consecutive quarter - in the October-December period, exports dropped 11.2 percent, while imports dropped 12.4 percent on the year.
In the third quarter of 2009, exports declined 17.6 percent and imports 23.5 percent in relation to the third quarter of 2008.
In the last quarter of 2009, government spending dropped 3.3 percent in relation to the same period of 2008. This was the second consecutive quarter to see an annual decline in government spending.
In the first two quarters of last year government spending grew 3.9 and 1.2 percent respectively in relation to the same period of 2008. Government spending in the third quarter dropped 0.6 percent.
Gross Value Added (GVA) was 4 percent down from 2008.
In the last three months of 2009, GVA was 4.2 percent down in relation to the last quarter of 2008.
The construction and retail sectors saw the biggest GVA drop in the last quarter - construction dropped by 13.4 percent and retailing by 13.3 percent.
GVA dropped on the year also in mining, processing industry, and power, gas and water supply, which all saw a decline of seven percent. The hotel and restaurant industry saw a drop in GVA of five percent, and transport services dropped 7.4 percent.
The real growth of GVA in the last quarter of 2009 was registered in agriculture (3.2 percent), banking, real estate sector and business services (1.5 percent), public administration and defence, social insurance, personal services and household services (0.2 percent).
