PRESS RELEASE, April 21, 2004

"EMERGING MARKETS": CNB RECEIVES BEST RESERVE MANAGER AWARD

"Emerging Markets" declared the Croatian National Bank "best manager of central bank reserves in Central and Eastern Europe in 2003". The British magazine's decision was based on the assessments of analysts monitoring this type of investment. Although the criteria were not publicly elaborated, the decision was assumably based on CNB's prolonging the average maturity of its international reserve investments, at the time when others acted differently, counting on interest rate growth, which did not occur.
The award was presented to the CNB's Deputy Governor Dr Boris Vujčić, at the EBRD meeting in London. On this occasion, the CNB was commended for developing its own risk management model, which in future may provide for a more liberal approach to reserve management and therefore result in higher gains. However, security and liquidity remain the basic criteria for international reserve management.