BOSNIAN BANKING SECTOR REMAINS RESILIENT TO GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (October 16,2008) - At yesterday's session of Bosnian State Presidency, the Bosnian Minister of Finance and Treasury Dragan Vrankić has informed the Bosnian Presidency about the possible consequences of the world financial crisis for Bosnia.

The report was given at the request of the Bosnian State Presidency members.

Minister Vrankić said that the Bosnian banking sector is sound and stable, that the banks were liquid and the consequences of financial crisis that affected the world would not directly reflect on Bosnia.

He informed the Bosnian Presidency members that resistance of banking system was ensured by strict legal measures of agencies for bank security and deposit insurance as well as high rate of obligatory reserve which business banks must keep in Bosnian Central Bank.

The Bosnian State Presidency is convinced that discernible mistrust of the Bosnian citizens, who have money deposed in banks and have been raising it lately, is ungrounded.

The Bosnian Presidency assumes that mistrust towards banks could reflect on the capacity of banks to invest in the Bosnian economy, which still has negative consequences for economic growth and also the standard of all Bosnian citizens.

According to the Bosnian State Presidency, Bosnia will not have the crisis of banking sector which occurred at the world banking scene.
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WORLD BANK ACCOUNTS FOR ABOUT 50% OF BOSNIAN FOREIGN DEBT

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (July 18,2008) - The Bosnian Finance Minister Dragan Vrankic talked with a delegation of the World Bank in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo yesterday which was helmed by Shigeo Katsu.

Vrankic said after the meeting that they were discussing the current political and economic issues in the country, the bank’s portfolio in Bosnia, and problems in its implementation. Possible future projects were also discussed, mainly in the areas of environmental protection, local communities and infrastructure, and worth 250 million Bosnian Marks.

Vrankic said that almost half of the country’s foreign debt (which totals 4 billion Bosnian Marks) is to the World Bank, and that its financial backing is a considerable contribution to restructuring processes.

“A general agreement is that Bosnia can keep the pace, but needs to make a step towards economic prosperity through the inflow of foreign capital, through investments. These, however, require a certain environment. If we provide that, then we have a chance of solving Bosnia’s biggest problem – unemployment”, Vrankic said.
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