ZAGREB, March 16, 2020 – The Croatian National Bank on Monday decided to place a total of HRK 4.55 billion on the open bank market through a structural and a regular operation, of which HRK 3.8 billion was placed through the structural operation for a five-year term and HRK 750 million through a regular operation for a term of one week.
Increasing the liquidity of the banking system is part of the measures that the Croatian National Bank (HNB) is undertaking with the aim of maintaining exchange rate stability during the crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic, the HNB said in a brief press release.
Last week the HNB announced new monetary measures – the purchase of domestic bonds and a structural operation.
The HNB has accepted all the bids by banks for the placement of HRK 3.8 billion at a fixed interest rate of 0.25% and for a term of five years, the maturity date being 18 March 2025.
Apart from that structural operation, the HNB also offered HRK 750 million to credit institutions via a regular reverse repo auction at an interest rate of 0.30% and a settlement date of 18 March, the maturity date being 25 March.
Today’s structural operation is the first since the end of 2018, and the first time since late 2017 that banks have shown an interest at the regular reverse repo auction.
In line with an earlier announcement by the HNB Council, the central bank last Friday purchased government bonds with a nominal value of HRK 212.88 million.
The central bank last week also intervened on the foreign exchange market on three occasions in an attempt to ease the depreciation pressure on the domestic currency.
The bank sold more than €1.2 billion through the three interventions and withdrew a total of HRK 9.1 million from the financial system.
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