Balance des paiements croate (document en anglais)

In 2012 the Croatian balance of payment was 2.555 billion dollars. We will start by giving a definition of what is a balance of payment. This balance in and account that retrace all the monetary transaction between a country and the rest of the world.

Some information about Croatia:

Capital: Zagreb

Latest Exchange rate:

1 HRK = 0.1809 USD, 1 USD = 5.5271 HRK

1 HRK = 0.1301 EUR, 1 EUR = 7.6885 HRK

Prevision of GDB Growth: 1,5% in 2014

FDI Stocks: 31 609 millions USD in 2012

Economic Freedom:

Grade: 61,3 /100

World Ranking: 78/177

Regional ranking : 35/43

The achieved balance of payments equilibrium in the current account in 2012 corresponds to the forecasts. Nevertheless, the year-on-year trend was much more different because instead of the expected balance deterioration (from 0.2% of GDP in 2011 to 0.0% of GDP in 2012) its improvement was recorded (from - 0.9% of GDP to 0.1% of GDP), as the result of a decrease in the domestic demand and imports. It is worth saying that the difference between the estimated and actual level of the balance in the current account for 2011 is primarily the consequence of the mentioned revision of the data on foreign trade in goods in 2011.

Net foreign capital inflows were very modest in 2012. A net inflow of EUR 0.4 billion was recorded in the financial and capital account. Net direct investment inflow was EUR 1.0 billion, where half of the direct investments value in Croatia was determined by the increase 10 in debt of the newly founded special- purpose company, and the new equity investments and retained earnings were below the previous year’s levels. EUR 1.9 billion was recorded in the portfolio investment account, as a result of the issue of government bond and the bonds of several companies. Contrary to this, in the other investments account net capital outflows amounted to EUR 2.6 billion, which was mostly affected by the deleveraging of commercial banks.

International reserves of the Croatian National Bank (CNB) increased in 2012 by 0.4%, reaching EUR 11.2 billion at the end of December. Their increase was a consequence of foreign currency net purchasing from the government (EUR 770 million) and the realized investment gains (EUR 110 million), while the selling of foreign currencies to the banks (EUR 666 million) had the reverse effect. The remaining difference is the consequence of a decrease in government foreign currency deposits, as well as a decrease in foreign currency reserve requirement. In the first two months of 2013 gross international reserves slightly decreased, mostly because of net selling of foreign currency to the government, amounting to EUR 11.1 billion at the end of February.

Price and cost competitiveness indicators of the Croatian export indicate at its improvement in 2012, by which the trend of strengthening the competitiveness has continued for a third consecutive year. Thus the Kuna (HRK) real effective exchange rate deflated by consumer prices in 2012 depreciated by 1.4%, when compared with 2011,

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