CROATIAN NATIONAL BANK'S LOSSES DUE TO FALL IN DOLLAR IN 2002

ZAGREB, May 14 (Hina) - The Croatian National Bank's (HNB) Council on Wednesday considered the latest fiscal and economic trends, adopted an annual report on the activities and financial results for last year and a report on an internal audit by the central bank and Croatian Mint for last year and made several decisions, the HNB reported. #L# The bank's activities last year were featured with an inflation rate of 2.3 per cent and a satisfactory level of stability in the exchange rate and a relatively high growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product of 5.2 per cent as well as a high rate of placement of banks' loans (a total of 30 per cent of which 42..8 per cent related to the population and 22.7 per cent to companies). The activities, however, were also beset by a high 6.9-percent deficit in the current accounts' balance and an increased foreign debt (a total of 35 per cent of which 24 per cent related to the state and 73 per cent to banks and 25 per cent of that debt was incurred by companies). Keeping in mind that 99 per cent of the assets run by the central bank relates to foreign currency reserves, overall financial indicators were featured with inter-value trends on the world market, i.e. a rapid fall in the value of the dollar, while one third of those reserves were kept in that currency. Because of these problems the Croatian National Bank marked a difference of 1.24 billion kuna in negative exchange rate differences. On the other hand the fall in the value of the dollar partially led to the reported increase in the foreign reserves during the year to the amount of 1.2 billion dollars or a total of 5.86 billion dollars which is 25 per cent more than it was a year ago. The total material expenditure of the central bank last year amounted to around 215 million kuna of which 120 million accounted for gross expenditure for employees (net salaries, taxes, and salary contributions as well as other related costs). (hina) sp ms