Croatia's economy shrunk for the third quarter in a row in the three months to June, preliminary data released by the Bureau of Statistics revealed Friday.
Gross domestic product dropped 2.1 percent year-on-year, following a 1.3 percent decline in the first quarter.
The country, which is set to join the European Union on July 1 next year, has not seen any growth in the past three years. On August 2, the finance ministry cut this year's growth forecast to zero growth from 0.8 percent. However, the economy is expected to expand 1.8 percent next year.
The International Monetary Fund expects the economy to shrink 0.5 percent this year, but grow by a percent in 2013. The World Bank has said that the outlook for growth in 2012 remains weak, given Croatia's dependence on economic cycles of the European Union.
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