This year's international Dubrovnik Economic Conference, an event hosted by the Croatian National Bank for the fourteenth time this year, opened yesterday with participation of several dozens of scholars from renowned universities around the world, economic analysts from international financial institutions, domestic and foreign central and commercial banks and other institutions.

In the introductory part of the conference held on Wednesday, six young economists presented their research in the field of finance and monetary and fiscal policy while prominent foreign experts gave their views on the subjects presented. On current sub prime mortgage crisis, Saša Živković from the Faculty of Economics in Rijeka analysed risk measurement on the financial markets. Saša Drezdić from the same Faculty, analysed the effects of public sector investment on economic growth in Croatia and Ivica Urban from the Zagreb Institute of Economics analysed the redistribution effects of the Croatian tax system while Petar Sorić from the Zagreb Faculty of Economics and Business examined the effects of the exchange rate of the kuna on foreign trade performance. Young economists from the Croatian National Bank, Ivo Krznar and Ana Maria Čeh focused on the model of optimal international reserves while Darko Pongrac examined the use of a mathematical model when deciding on the marginal reserve requirement as an instrument of monetary policy.

The official part of the conference began with the presentation of Robert Gordon from Northwestern University, USA, about changes in American and European productivity and continued with the examination of structural and regulatory reforms in Europe and their effects on competitiveness and economic growth, and analysis of the key factors of change and the performance of national economies and companies in "old Europe" and in transition countries.

The second day of the conference will focus on current developments in different banking systems, from those in America and Western Europe to regional and Croatian banking systems. The participants at the conference are awaiting with particular interest tomorrow's discussion by domestic and foreign experts on inflationary expectations, with inflation coming again under the spotlight of economic analysts, the business community and the general public around the world.