CROATIA SOON TO SWITCH TO NEW SYSTEM OF COOPERATION WITH IMF

( Vidi vijest: 5210 ) ZAGREB, Oct 23 (Hina) - Croatian National Bank (NBH) governor Marko Skreb announced at Thursday's news conference in Zagreb the NBH's new manner of cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "In about two months we shall switch over to the Staff Monitoring Programme," Skreb said, adding that the programme envisaged cooperation and consultation with expert services of the IMF, without drawing loans. Speaking of his visit to Washington on Monday and Tuesday and his talks with IMF officials, Skreb said the "relations with the IMF have been and will remain very, very good". A three-year arrangement with the IMF has not been disrupted by the recent decision of the Croatian government not to draw a second loan tranche envisaged by the arrangement. The decision not to draw the funds "does not mean interruption of the relations or the programme," Skreb said. An IMF representative in Croatia, Gary O'Callaghan, stressed that the decision not to draw the loan was nothing unusual, but that it was an evolving relationship of the IMF with a member country. He said IMF monitoring would continue in order to remain informed in case Croatia should decide to use the granted loan in the future. Regarding preparations for the new programme with the IMF, Skreb announced a visit by an IMF mission in December to discuss an economic policy for next year. "The policy of economic stabilisation will remain the basic orientation of the government and the National Bank of Croatia. One should not expect changes but the continuation of the policy of macroeconomic stability and structural reform," Skreb stressed. Reporters were also informed about Wednesday's session of the NBH Governing Council, especially about the problems of balance-of- payments statistics. Skreb said that an NBH delegation had asked the IMF for technical assistance in creating a new statistics model. "Everything points to the fact that the current statistics model overestimated the current account deficit," Skreb said. The NBH is preparing to introduce the Value Added Tax, and we estimate that there won't be any need for additional intervention, he added . (hina) lm jn 231618 MET oct 97