July the 4th, 2025 – Despite constant complaints about high prices, Croatian restaurants and cafes have seen both increased custom and higher revenue.
As Jadranka Dozan/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the general level of consumer prices increased in June. According to the first, preliminary assessment by state statisticians, the prices of goods and services for personal consumption increased by 0.3 percent on average compared to the previous month.
Looking at it all on an annual basis, prices in Croatia increased from May’s 3.5 to a slightly higher 3.7 percent. The prices of services contributed the most to the monthly growth, and not unexpectedly. They went up by one percent on average. The components of the consumer basket from the categories of energy and food, beverages and tobacco also went up in price. This however ended up being slightly less; by 0.3 percent on average.
A slight decrease in the price of non-food industrial products (by 0.7 percent on average) softened the overall monthly price growth in Croatia. Compared to last June, the most significant price increase was recorded by services, by 6.7 percent. The price of food, drinks and tobacco were also more expensive by 5.2 percent. Energy is currently at three percent of annual growth, and the prices of industrial non-food products are slightly lower than they were one year ago.
Finance Minister Marko Primorac has claimed that the government is still sticking to its projection that the average inflation rate for the entire year will stand at just three percent. This means that after the end of the “peak” tourist season this summer, the inflation rate is expected to slow down to below three percent towards the end of the year. All in all, the minister believes that nothing worth writing home about is really happening.
It is also not exactly news that Croatia is at the top of the list according to the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP). That includes the consumption of foreign tourists and so-called institutional households in European comparisons. According to the so-called flash estimate by Eurostat, at the Eurozone level, prices measured by the HICP increased by an average of 0.3 percent on a monthly basis. The annual rate, after slowing to 1.9 percent in May, stood at 2.0 percent in June.
According to this methodology, the monthly growth in Croatia stood at a mere 0.8 percent, and the annual rate reached 4.4 percent, after hitting 4.3 percent in May. Only Estonia and Slovakia are currently recording higher inflation in the Eurozone (5.2 and 4.6 percent). When asked about this, Minister Primorac referred reporters to “the central bank, for whom one of the main goals is ensuring stability.”
Price movements are certainly influenced by the state of demand. Here in Croatia, that also relates very particularly to the services segment. This sector of the economy has quite clearly been supporting above-average inflation rates for a long time now. The latest data from the Tax Administration on fiscalisation also supports this. During the month of June, the total number of bills issued was 5.4 percent higher compared to the same month last year. The amount of goods and services paid for in this way also increased by 14 percent, to a total of 4.69 billion euros. In the first six months of 2025, fiscalised turnover recorded a growth of nine percent, with 1.5 percent more bills issued than last year.
Given the time of year and the heating up of the height of the summer tourist season, it’s safe to say that Croatian restaurants are doing well in terms of revenue. That appears to be the case regardless of the constant whining about prices. It’s therefore worth noting that businesses operating in the hospitality industry issued almost eight percent more bills to consumers last month than they did back in June 2024.
It should also be stated that their value increased by almost 19 percent, from 511 to almost 608 million euros. Observed from the beginning of the year, growth was somewhat slower. For payments in cash or by cards, Croatian restaurants, cafes and other forms of food and beverage preparation and serving services had issued 2.8 percent more bills by mid way this year, equal to revenue worth 2.13 billion euros. That’s representative of a 13.4 percent increase when compared to the half way point of 2024.
At the same time, payments worth around 415 million euros were recorded in the country’s accommodation sector through fiscal cash registers in June. That’s equal to an entire fifth more than in the same month last year. This amount also represents around 45 percent of the fiscalised turnover recorded in the entire half-year period, which is 12 percent stronger in terms of turnover than in 2024. At the same time, the number of landlord invoices registered in the fiscalisation system in the first six months of 2025 recorded annual growth of 3.8 percent. If we look at June alone, 12 percent more of them were issued this year than back in June 2024.
The stamp of increased consumption with the heating up of the summer tourist season in retail trade in June was reflected in 2.57 billion euros of fiscalised turnover. That’s representative of an 11 percent increase when compared to the same month last year, with retailers’ fiscal cash registers recording a 3.7 percent higher number of receipts. From the beginning to the middle of the year, their number increased by only 0.4 percent, and turnover increased by a much more modest 7 percent, exceeding 12.8 billion euros.
Only supermarkets and hypermarkets, or so-called non-specialised stores selling mainly food and household products, achieved more than a billion euros in turnover last month. That’s equal to 11 percent more than last year, with three percent more receipts issued. In the first half of this year, they achieved 5.1 billion euros in turnover on a slightly larger number of issued receipts, which is seven percent more than in 2024.
