CROATIA REDUCES EXTERNAL DEBT BY $50 MILLION

ZAGREB, Aug 23 (Hina) - Croatia reduced its external debt by nearly 50 million dollars at the end of April, the National Bank of Croatia says. The foreign debt amounted to $4.99 billion at the end of April in comparison to $5.04 billion at the end of March. In April, medium and long-term loans accounted for $4.68 billion of the debt compared to $4.73 billion in the previous month. Of that, the debt to international financial organisations and governments totalled $1.82 billion and to the private creditors $2.86 billion. At the same time short-term loans accounted for $274.2 million, or $3.5 million less than at the end of March. (hina) vm jn 231356 MET aug 97