The Council of the CNB chaired by Governor, Dr. Marko Skreb, met on Wednesday, June 3, 1998, to review recent economic and monetary developments, to approve the annual report of the Croatian Mint for 1997, and to make several decisions in accordance with its authorities.
Nearly all real sector industries covered by statistics recorded a higher level of activity in the first four months of this year. Especially favorable results were achieved by industrial production and tourism: industrial production grew by 6.3 percent and overnight stays in tourism by 2.9 percent year-on-year. Foreign trade figures are also favorable: compared to the same period last year, exports were 2.1 percent higher and imports 2.6 percent higher in kuna terms. Real wages in April of this year were 5.9 percent higher than in the same month in 1997.
At its Wednesday meeting, the Council of the CNB made the Decision on Reporting to the Croatian National Bank on Loans in the amount of HRK 5 million or more Granted to a Single Borrower. The purpose of this decision is to enhance the monitoring of risk in the banking system. Banks and savings banks will be required to report such loans to big borrowers in the regulatory report submitted to the CNB on a quarterly basis. Since at this time financial markets lack transparency in this area, the data on such loans will be very useful to banks and savings banks, as well as to the Croatian National Bank.
The Council of the CNB also made the Decision on Collection of Data about International Transportation Services. Pursuant to this decision, domestic legal and physical persons, as well as representative offices of foreign legal persons will be required to report to the CNB on a three-month-basis about transportation services provided. The data will enable the compilation of more detailed and reliable BOP statistics.
The Council of the CNB approved amendments to the Decision on Conditions and Manners of Making Cash Payments. Pursuant to these amendments, the maximum amount which legal persons may keep in their vault will amount to HRK 10, 30 or 50 thousand, depending on the size of a legal person, and HRK 10 thousand for physical persons. It was estimated that the amendements will ensure higher flexibility of implementation of this decision.
At the Wednesday meeting, Convest Banka d.d. Zagreb was granted a licence for performing international payment and credit transactions. The Council accepted the nominations of Mr. Mario Kirinic for chairman of the management board of Kaptol Banka d.d. Zagreb; Ms. Zvjezdana Stipic and Ms. Jasna Fumagalli for members of the management board of Gospodarsko-kreditna Banka d.d. Zagreb; Mr. Zdenko Vidakovic for chairman of the management board of Stedionica Brod d.o.o. Slavonski Brod and Mr. Mico Tomic for member of the management board of the same savings bank.