At its session today, the Council of the Croatian National Bank examined the latest monetary and economic indicators as well as a report on the banking system condition in the last quarter of the previous year. The Council also adopted a monetary policy projection for the 2016 to 2019 period and enacted several decisions.

Current economic activity continued to recover in early 2016. According to available monthly indicators, real GDP increased again, after having temporarily decreased at the end of the previous year. Consumer prices fell at an accelerated annual rate in January and February, primarily due to trends in energy and food prices. The monetary policy stance remained strongly expansionary in the beginning of 2016, with excess kuna liquidity levels reaching record highs and bank placements stagnating at the level from the end of the previous year. These trends were observed based on transactions (excluding the exchange rate effect and the sale and write off of placements). The conversion and partial write off of Swiss franc denominated loans to households resulted in a nominal fall in placements. Data on government financing suggest that a strong fiscal adjustment was carried out in the previous year and favourable fiscal developments continued in early 2016.

Also at this session, the CNB Council adopted decisions on harmonising the Operating Rules of the Croatian national component of TARGET2 payment system with the Guideline of the European Central Bank on TARGET2.

The CNB Council also approved the decision of the Supervisory Board of Privredna Banka Zagreb d.d. to reappoint Gabriele Pace and Andrea Pavlović as Members of the Management Board.