ZAGREB, April 12 (Hina) - The assets worth some 132 million US dollars, which Croatia will receive on the basis of agreement on the division of the former Yugoslavia's (SFRY) assets deposited in the Basel-based Bank for the
International Settlements (BIS), will be added to Croatia's currency reserves, the Croatian central bank's vice governors said on Thursday.
ZAGREB, April 12 (Hina) - The assets worth some 132 million US
dollars, which Croatia will receive on the basis of agreement on the
division of the former Yugoslavia's (SFRY) assets deposited in the
Basel-based Bank for the International Settlements (BIS), will be
added to Croatia's currency reserves, the Croatian central bank's
vice governors said on Thursday.#L#
A vice-governor, Tomislav Presecan, explained that members of the
BIS are national banks and thus the assets deposited in the BIS
would go into the foreign exchange reserves of concerned
countries.
Delegations of five countries-successors to the former Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) on Wednesday initialled an
agreement on the partition of the assets kept in the BIS. Under the
agreement, the incumbent Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro, or FRY)
will get 36.5 percent of the assets in the BIS, Croatia 28.5
percent, Slovenia 16.4, Bosnia-Herzegovina 13.2, and Macedonia 5.4
percent. Consequently, Zagreb will receive $132-million-worth
assets.
Governors of the five countries-successors' central banks are
responsible for the implementation the Brussels agreement. The
decision on the division in accordance to the adopted key (proposed
by the International Monetary Fund) is to be made by the BIS annual
assembly, which will convene in June, said the other vice-governor
of the Croatian National Bank (HNB), Relja Martic.
Thus gold, foreign currencies and dividends allocated to Croatia
will be transferred to the HNB's balance sheet, and will not be used
for any kind of spending, Martic added.
Consequently, the Croatian foreign exchange holdings will rise by
some $132 million. At present they come to some $3.4 billion
This year, the bank has planned to increase the currency reserves by
some 270 million without the means which will be allocated
according to the Brussels agreement.
Presecen explained that the ex-Yugoslavia's assets in Basel
consisted of four categories - gold (the largest part), some
foreign currency deposits, about 8,000 shares and dividends
realised by the BIS business operations.
According to the rate and prices in the mid-November last year, the
value of gold and foreign currencies of the former Yugoslavia was
estimated to some 414 million dollars, whereas the value of shares
and dividends at some 50 million.
The gold will remain in the Basel bank, but Croatia is planning to
sell its share in view of the continual fall in the gold price,
Martic said.
Asked about the practical use of the means, Presecen explained this
property could be used for adequate loans in conducting monetary
policies and maintaining the adequate exchange-rate policy.
Presecen and Martic, who took part in the three-day-long round of
negotiations in Brussels which ended yesterday, said the
importance of the initialled paper lay in the fact that the five
delegations had finally reached agreement on something for the
first time.
(hina) ms