ZAGREB, Nov 3 (Hina) - The Croatian National Bank's Council on Wednesday held a session, chaired by the central bank's governor, Marko Skreb, and discussed the situation and directions for further development of the Croatian banking
system.
ZAGREB, Nov 3 (Hina) - The Croatian National Bank's Council on
Wednesday held a session, chaired by the central bank's governor,
Marko Skreb, and discussed the situation and directions for further
development of the Croatian banking system.#L#
The Bank's Council also considered latest indicators about the
economic and monetary trends, the Bank said in a statement.
The Council assessed that the current state could be viewed as
better than in previous years, but it cannot still be considered as
satisfactory.
In view of the direction and assessment of the further development,
the crucial goals should be to apply principles of safe and sound
operations in order that banks make profit and simultaneously take
adequate care of depositors, to offer more diverse and cheaper
financial services to citizens, companies and the state as well as
to cut prices of capital and margins, to apply international
standards in operating costs and to run risk in better ways.
Considering the latest economic trends the Council could not find
the confirmation of the expected economic revival.
In the first ten months of this year, the industrial output was
smaller by 2.8 percent than in the same period in 1998. The fall in
this field was 4.6 percent in the last three months.
The number of registered people on the dole was 326,500 or
approximately 40,000 persons more than at the end of September in
1998. So, the unemployment rate is 19.6 percent.
The export of goods from January to date amounted to 3.16 billion
dollars, or 5.7 percent less than last year. The import of goods
totalled 5.64 billion dollars or 9.7 percent less than in the same
period of 1998. The deficit in the trade is 2.48 billion dollars, or
14.3 percent less than in the first ten months of 1998.
Data on price trends are still not known, while the exchange rate of
kuna has remained stable.
One of favourable indicators is the fact that the average
difference between positive and negative interest rates has also
decreased. The crucial impact on this has been made thanks to
elimination of a few bad banks from the market.
(hina) ms