February 13 (SeeNews) - Croatia's economic growth slowed down in the fourth quarter of 2019, the country's central bank, HNB, said without quoting figures.
According to earlier released data of the statistics office, the Croatian economy expanded by a surprising 3.9% on the year in the first quarter of 2019, with the annual growth cooling down to 2.4% in the second quarter, and then picking up to 2.9% in the third quarter of last year.
"The available monthly indicators point to a slowdown of the real GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2019," HNB said in a statement on Wednesday after a regular meeting of its council.
It added that the favourable conditions on the labour market continued in the final three months of last year, with rising employment and salaries and a declining number of unemployed.
The annual inflation quickened to 1.4% in December from November's 0.7% due to higher food prices and higher petrol prices.
Earlier this week, the Institute of Economics Zagreb (EIZ) estimated that Croatia's annual GDP growth cooled down to 2.5% in the final quarter of last year, but the full-year growth quickened to 3.0% in 2019 from 2.6% in 2018.
EIZ's full-year estimate is in line with the latest expectations of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Commission, which project Croatia's 2019 economic growth at 2.9% - 3.0%. Those institutions forecast growth of 2.5% - 2.7% in 2020.
In December, HNB said growth is expected to slow down to 2.8% in 2020 from 3.0% anticipated in 2019.
The country's statistics office is expected to release a first estimate on the 2019 GDP growth on February 28.