500 MILLION CRO KUNAS CIRCULATING IN BOSNIA? - ASKS SARAJEVO DAILY

SARAJEVO, Aug 31 (Hina) - The parliament of Bosnia's Croat-Muslim federation should by the end of September pass a law which would regulate the elimination of the Croatian kuna and the German mark from internal money transfers, Sarajevo-based daily Dnevni Avaz says in its Tuesday issue. The federation parliament will have to do so in the wake of a demand representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made to the entity's government last week. According to the IMF, the elimination of other states' currencies is the condition for all future cooperation with Bosnia- Herzegovina. If the demand is complied with, payments in Croatian kunas and German marks could be possible only through business banks and abroad, whereas domestic payments would be effected only in Bosnian convertible mark, via the Money Transfers Bureau. Extant deposits in German marks would be transferred to the Central Bank, i.e. exchanged for domestic currency. Dnevni Avaz believes a problem could occur in complying with IMF's demand due to the fact that only 50 percent of amounts circulating in the federation in Croatian kunas has full cover. The rest is covered by papers which cannot be exchanged for hard currency, which is the condition for conversion into Bosnian convertible marks. According to current estimates, there are some 500 million Croatian kunas (DM128 million) and at least DM400 million circulating in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In areas of the federation populated mostly by Muslims, 80 percent of internal money transfers is covered with the convertible mark, whereas the remaining 20 percent is covered by the German mark. (hina) ha