ZAGREB, May 7 (Hina) - Despite the Rijecka Banka affair, Croatia's credit rating for May has remained unchanged, at the DB4d level, and the banking sector is considered stable, reads a report by the Dun & Bradstreet (D & B) credit
rating agency.
ZAGREB, May 7 (Hina) - Despite the Rijecka Banka affair, Croatia's
credit rating for May has remained unchanged, at the DB4d level, and
the banking sector is considered stable, reads a report by the Dun &
Bradstreet (D & B) credit rating agency. #L#
From the economic point of view, the country's risk profile has been
positively affected by recently released information on a 4.1
percent growth of GDP in 2001, which is a little higher than D&B's
estimate of 4 percent.
D&B analysts dedicated a large section of May's report to the
Rijecka Banka affair.
After Rijecka Banka's chief dealer lost US$100 million in this
fourth largest bank in Croatia, several unfavourable events
followed: investors withdrew US$218 million within two weeks and
there was talk that other banks were involved in similar deals.
This could have shaken the trust in the banking sector, however, the
crisis was resolved and D&B analysts do not see any further cause
for concern in the Croatian banking system, so the country's rating
remains at DB4d, which places it among countries of moderate
investment risk.
Croatia continues to hold ninth place among 24 monitored East
European countries.
First position is held by Hungary and Slovenia, which have a DB2d
rating, the mark of low risk countries. Yugoslavia and Usbekistan,
Albania and several other countries are at the bottom of the scale,
with DB6d rating, which marks the highest investment risk.
(hina) sp sb