CROATIAN EXTERNAL DEBT TOTALLED 11.3 BILLION DOLLARS IN APRIL

ZAGREB, July 1 (Hina) - Croatia's foreign debt came to 11.3 billion US dollars at the end of April this year. Figuratively, each Croatian citizen had the external debt of $2,586 dollars.#L# According to the Croatian National Bank (HNB), the external debt rose by $500 million from the start of this year to the end of April, and it increased by 1.4 billion as against the end of 1999. The question about the country's indebtedness has been raised with the latest discussions on the revision of the 2001 budget and the government's request that it be given the green light from the parliament to seek more loans abroad to cover a budgetary deficit. Government officials assert that Croatia is in a group of countries with low foreign debts and corroborate their statements with the World Bank's criteria. On the other hand, some analysts and independent economic experts warn that Croatia ran into considerable debts as the foreign debt's share in the Gross Domestic Product was 57 percent in 2000. The biggest debtor is the government with 5.2 billion dollars or with 46.3 percent of its share in the overall external debt as against 40.2 percent of its share in late 1999. The government's share in the external debt has been increased with the issuance of state bonds. The bonds, however, were issued under favourable conditions last and this year. This indebtedness - samuray bonds worth about $216 million issued in Japan in February and euro-bonds of 500 million euro issued in March - will enlarge the country's debt as of 2006. At the end of April, other sectors - companies, non-financial institutions, population - had $3.1 billion of foreign debts or 27.7-percent share in the total external debt. The share of banks with the debt of 1.6 billion dollars came to over 14 percent. The item of direct investments with nearly 1.2 billion has a 10.5 share in the external debt. (hina) ms