The session, held under the chairmanship of HNB deputy governor Boris Vujcic, discussed the latest economic and monetary trends and concluded that most trends were within expectations and did not call for any changes in projections of the monetary policy for this year, the HNB stated.
Oscillations of the kuna exchange rate are still within the expected range and the HNB will intervene in the foreign currency market only in cases of more significant oscillations. In early December last year, the HNB bought 99.5 million euros. The end of December saw a depreciation of the kuna, which was followed by increased appreciation that prompted the bank to buy 8.5 million euros last Wednesday.
The increased foreign currency offer was also the result of a growing demand for foreign loans among domestic banks in November and December, which was followed by increased granting of loans in the country. The loan growth rate at the end of last year was around 14.2 percent (similar to 2003, while in mid-2004 the loan growth rate dropped to 12 percent). As regards balance-of-payments trends, last year saw the continuation of positive foreign trade trends - the annual increase in exports (not including ships and oil products) was 14.4 percent, while imports rose by 8.8 percent, HNB officials said.