The Croatian retail market is slowly recovering, new research by GfK market research company shows.

After falling for the past 18 consecutive months, traffic is slowly beginning to pick up. In comparison to the same month last year, the traffic in March fell by only 2.8 percent (nominal 2.1 percent). Compared to February of this year, when it grew 19.2 percent (19.9 percent nominal).

Domestic and foreign chains own 81 percent of Croatian consumer goods market which include food and all goods used in everyday household consumption. Only 20 percent of Croatians shop in small stores.

The market segment is still very affected by the crisis and citizens' reluctant spending in the automobile segment. Compared to March of 2009, car sales fell by 34 percent (nominal) this year, the Croatian daily Jutarnji List writes