June 14 (SeeNews) - Croatia's economic growth is expected to accelerate to 4.7% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2019, from 3.9% in the first quarter, the Economic Institute in Zagreb (EIZ), a think-tank, said.
In seasonally-adjusted terms, the estimated rise in gross domestic product (GDP) in April-June is 1.6% compared to January-March, EIZ said on Monday in the monthly review of its Coincident Economic Index, CEIZ.
Still, EIZ says it will have to wait for the CEIZ value in May in order to analyse the second-quarter business cycle with greater certainty.
The CEIZ index aims to provide timely information on the current business cycle conditions. Its value changes simultaneously with the business cycle, thus serving as an indicator of the present state of the economy.
In April, the index recorded its highest value since the end of 2016, and was up by 0.8 index points compared to both March and the average monthly index value in the first quarter of 2019.
"This suggests that the economic activity in the country accelerated compared to the beginning of the year," EIZ said. "In addition, considering that the index value in April 2019 was 1.8 index points higher compared to the same month last year, we can conclude that strengthening of economic activity at the beginning of the second quarter of 2019 was more intense than a year ago."
All CEIZ index components, and in particular tourist arrivals and VAT revenues, grew on an annual level in April, EIZ said.
The Croatian government expects that the economy will grow 2.5% this year, slightly decelerating from the 2.6% expansion in 2018.