CROATIA EXPECTS CREDIT RATING EVALUATION BEFORE YEAR'S END

ZAGREB, Nov 28 (Hina) - Representatives of the world's leading credit rating agencies - IBCA Ltd, Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's Corporation - have visited Croatia at the invitation of the Croatian government, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. The guests, who arrived in Zagreb on November 18, have held talks with representatives of the president's office, the government, ministries and agencies in charge of economic and financial issues, the National Bank of Croatia, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, banks, the Zagreb County Assembly, the Croatian Social Liberal Party, trade unions, scientific institutions, Zagreb University and big companies. They also visited Ambassadors Peter Galbraith of the United States and Gavin Hewitt of Britain and a representative of the Zagreb office of the International Monetary Fund, Christian Schiller. The Ministry of Finance expects that results of the evaluation of Croatia's credit rating would be made public before the end of the year and that Croatia would be included in a list of 61 countries that had been assessed so far. The evaluation of the country's credit-worthiness would be crucial for conditions under which Croatia and its legal entities, banks and companies, would be borrowing on the international financial market, the statement said. (hina) vm jn 282027 MET nov 96