GOVERNOR ROHATINSKI SENDS LETTER TO BIS GENERAL MANAGER

ZAGREB, April 13 (Hina) - Croatian National Bank (HNB) Governor Zeljko Rohatinski on Friday forwarded a letter to the general manager of the Basel-based Bank for the International Settlements (BIS), Andrew Crockett, confirming the HNB agreed that the former SFRY's assets be divided among the successor countries as stated in an agreement initialled in Brussels two days ago. By this, Croatia has fulfilled its obligation on a path to a final division of assets (gold, foreign currencies, exchange deposits, stocks and dividends) the former state had deposited in the BIS. 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. The ex-Yugoslavia's assets in Basel consist of four categories - gold, some foreign currency deposits, about 8,000 shares and dividends. 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. Rohatinski forwarded the same letter to governors of central banks in Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. (hina) it