Croatia confirms its status of attractive bond issuer

The issuance of a euro bond on the international market in the nominal amount of €1.25 billion due in 2032 confirms that Croatia enjoys the status of an attractive issuer whom investors trust, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said at the start of his cabinet's meeting on Thursday.

The annual coupon rate is 2.875% and the yield 2.975%.

The money will be used to finance state budget requirements, including the rescheduling of a euro bond due on 30 May in the nominal amount of €1.25 billion and 3.875% in interest.

"The terms achieved confirm the status of Croatia as an attractive issuer. This also proves the strong confidence of investors in the quality of Croatia's debt on the international market, and this has led to the fact that Croatia has paved the way for the euro-bond issuance for other countries in the region," said Plenković.

Despite rising inflation, stricter central bank monetary policies, increases in interest rates and market yields, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the international investment community's interest was very significant, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.

Everyone should take military drone crash seriously

Addressing the cabinet, he was commenting on yesterday's press conference at which representatives of the county prosecutor's office, the military police and the Ivan Vučetić Forensic Science Centre presented the results of the investigation to date.

"The essential thing is that yesterday we heard at that level, too, what we have been saying the whole time. I would like to once again call on all actors in society to be serious, to take the situation very seriously, just as we have from day one."

Plenković said a drone armed with an aviation bomb and a fuse crashed in Zagreb on 10 March, causing an explosion, just as the European Council was negotiating a declaration on Russia's aggression on Ukraine. The reconnaissance drone was repurposed to carry weapons.

"All the details about which experts talked yesterday are extremely important because they confirm what we have been communicating all this time, and we have been communicating what is correct and true."

He said various state authorities would continue to investigate how the drone ended up in central Zagreb, whether it was a mistake, sabotage or intentional, which he said would take time.

"We are talking with our partners and you saw that we took this message seriously in the prompt response from our allies and the overflights of American and French war planes, which signalled that our strongest allies in NATO and the EU are ready to help in Croatia's protection."

The government will continue to invest in defence and this year's Defence Ministry budget is the highest in recent years at HRK 7.2 billion.

"This message is especially important as we continue to strengthen and invest in air defence and the security of Croatian skies, which has gained a new dimension after these circumstances. What we took for granted is no longer so," said Plenković.

Any attempt to connect Croatia with Ustasha is unacceptable

Commenting on the commemoration of the International Romany Day, 8 April, Plenković recalled that during World War II, an estimated 500,000 Roma were killed during the genocide committed against this ethnic group in Europe.

It is difficult to determine the number of Roma victims in Croatia, however, most of them were killed in the Jasenovac concentration camp, Plenković said.

He recalled that the persecution and extermination of the Jews and the Roma was envisaged by racial laws adopted on 30 April 1941 by the Ustasha-led Independent State of Croatia (NDH), following the example of the Third Reich. Apart from Roma and Jews, the regime persecuted and killed Serbs, many Croatian anti-fascists and other opponents of the Ustasha regime, Plenković recalled.

The NDH was a Fascist and totalitarian state in which the most horrendous crimes were committed, he underscored.

Therefore the NDH constitutes a negation of all the fundamental values of the constitutional order of the present-day Croatia, he said, condemning again the NDH crimes.

Text: Hina

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