CROATIAN NATIONAL BANK INTRODUCES BETTER DEBTORS' CONTROL

( Editorial: --> 8641 ) ZAGREB, June 3 (Hina) - The Croatian National Bank (HNB) advisory board discussed the economic and financial indicators of the financial year to date at a session which was held on Wednesday. The session was chaired by the HNB Governor Marko Skreb. An increased level of activity has been registered in almost all areas of the economy. Better results have been registered in the industrial production and tourist overnight-stays in the first four months of this year than in the same period last year - the overall industrial production has increased by 6.3 per cent while the number of overnight-stays has registered a 2.9 per cent rise. Data on the increase of foreign trade is also favourable: during the first four months of 1998, kuna export increased by 2.1% while import increased by 2.6%. The average net wage in May this year was 5.9% higher than in the same period last year. The HNB advisory board today decided that the HNB must be informed about any case of indebtedness with banks and savings banks which exceeds US$781,000. Considering the fact that there is no complete transparency in this area of the financial market, this data will be very useful to the banks and savings banks as well as to the HNB, because it will enable the monitoring of the so-called big debtors, the HNB advisory board said. The HNB has also made a decision on gathering data on services in international transport. According to this decision, domestic legal and physical entities and offices of foreign legal entities in Croatia will every three months submit data on international transport services to the central bank. (hina) jn rml/bag 031920 MET jun 98