DUN&BRADSTREET: CROATIA SEEMS TO BE COMING OUT OF RECESSION

ZAGREB, June 7 (Hina) - Croatia has been given DB5a credit rating for June, the same as the month before, when its credit rating improved for the first time after 19 months, read a report from Dun&Bradstreet (D&B), one of the leading international agencies for business information and credit rating. In its June report the agency estimates that Croatia seems to be slowly coming out of a recession. The first 100 days of the new government and its further moves confirm that the decision D&B analysts made last month regarding the improvement of the business risk assessment was justified, reads the June report. Considering some positive trends in the Croatian economy in the first quarter of this year (the growth of industrial production and increased exports), the agency forecasts that the real Gross Domestic Product will increase by 1.5 percent this year, and by 2.5 percent next year. According to its May report, the agency estimated that Croatia's current credit rating - DB5a - was the best possible credit rating in the DB5 category, which includes countries with high investment risk. However, Bonline company, which represents D&B in Croatia, reported that such an assessment was a position which Croatia could soon, maybe at the end of this tourist season already, leave for DB4 category, which includes countries with moderate investment risk. Croatia remains ninth on a list of 24 central and east European countries. (hina) rml