Croatia's current account deficit widened to EUR 2203.2 million in the first quarter of 2019 from EUR 1977.1 million in the corresponding period of the previous year. It was the largest current account gap since the fist quarter of 2008, as the goods gap increased to EUR 2,460.7 million from EUR 2,267.0 million and the services surplus narrowed to EUR 184.9 million from EUR 804.0 million. Additionally, the primary income shortfall rose to EUR 222.2 million from EUR 56.3 million a year earlier and the secondary income surplus declined to EUR 294.8 million from EUR 535.4 million. Current Account in Croatia averaged -209.11 EUR Million from 1993 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 4022.10 EUR Million in the third quarter of 2018 and a record low of -2519.30 EUR Million in the first quarter of 2008.
Current Account in Croatia is expected to be 150.00 EUR Million by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Current Account in Croatia to stand at -1500.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Croatia Current Account is projected to trend around -300.00 EUR Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.