Croatia

Until recently, Croatia's economic performance was the envy of many countries in transition: a successful stabilization effort in late 1993 was followed by virtual price stability and real GDP growth of 6 percent a year during 1994–97. Monetary tightening, the weak economy, and a drying-up of repatriated foreign savings exposed the underlying insolvency of a group of rapidly growing banks. Executive Directors emphasized that the task of restoring fiscal balance could not be accomplished without redressing the finances of the pension and health care systems.Article IV consultations;Economic conditions;banking, current account, foreign exchange, national bank, balance of payments, current account deficit, banking sector, external debt, banking supervision, banking system, banking law, central bank, short-term debt, banking statistics, debt service, government finance, reserve management, bankrupt, capital adequacy, debt data, external borrowing, deposit insurance, internal audit, public finance, government debt, bank accounting, equity investment, current account balance, bankrupt banks, external financing, public debt, domestic absorption, domestic saving, current account adjustment, external debt data, debt ratio, long-term loans, domestic debt, bank assets, debt-equity, government deficit, debt statistics, repayments, debt service payments, domestic debt data, regional bank, banking crisis, debt service to exports, bank supervision, debt contracts, capital adequacy ratio, payment arrears, bank staff, bank balance sheet, banking sector assets, current expenditure, banking sector reform, total external debt, macroeconomic stability, public sector debt, currency board, central banks, bank of israel, debt database, bank credits, budget projections, bank liquidity, state enterprise, clearing house, bank restructuring, external debt database, bank loan, foreign exchange market, external debt statistics, clearinghouse, debt service obligations, interbank market, bank law, domestic public debt, debt servicing, current price, return on assets, banking sector problems, bank credit, private banks, deposit insurance coverage, external indebtedness, general resources account, bank deposits, return on equity, capital expenditure, bank failures