CROATIAN FIN MIN: NEGOTIATIONS WITH IMF PROCEED WELL

ZAGREB, July 4 (Hina) - Croatia's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are proceeding well and we expect that we shall be more successful during July and that we shall achieve a high level of agreement on all important issues in autumn, said Croatian Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac after Tuesday's talks with an executive director in the IMF, Johannes de Beaufort Wijnholds. Wijnholds could not say precisely when Zagreb would conclude a stand-by arrangement with the IMF, expressing hope that it would be in coming months. He announced that the IMF mission would come back to Croatia this month. Further progress can be expected after that and after the announced extraordinary session of the Croatian national parliament scheduled for July 12. The Sabor is to discuss reforms in the public health and power sectors, salary policies, the payment of the debt to retirees. In addition, projections of state budgets for next three years are under way, and all of this is main topics for negotiations with the IMF, Crkvenac and Wijnholds agreed. Wijnholds voiced satisfaction with the Croatian Government's dedication to the commencement of solving serious economic problems as well as with the progress achieved to date. He added that Croatia was facing the problem of unemployment and therefore it was necessary to adjust salaries of workers in public sector. Crkvenac said the IMF believed that measures intended to cut the state expenditure, stimulate domestic savings and foreign investments as well as measures for wage control and economic stability would be useful steps in creating more jobs. Crkvenac pointed to the necessity to lessen the public expenditure the share of which rose to 54 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (hina) ms