Terms and conditions for the implementation of Inflation targeting in Croatia

Since the introduction of the Stabilization program in 1993, the Croatian National Bank has been following the monetary strategy of exchange rate anchor. During the first several years (from 1993 to 1997) this monetary strategy achieved acceptable results, accompanied with a low inflation rate and high GDP growth rates. However, the macroeconomic situation has changed in the last decade. The indicators of Croatian economy, such as trade balance, the level of external debt and GDP growth rates, are not satisfying. The criticizers of exchange rate anchor monetary strategy argue that appreciated kuna lowers the competitiveness of the domestic economy. Due to that, the current monetary strategy is in the focus of various economists' discussions. One of the alternatives to the exchange rate anchor is inflation targeting. There are different theoretical and practical issues connected to the implementation of this, very popular, monetary strategy. Before the implementation of inflation targeting, the following conditions need to be fulfilled: (1) the independence of monetary authorities in choosing the monetary instruments should be achieved, (2) at least one monetary policy instrument should be efficient, and (3) the transparency of monetary policy should be accomplished. The process itself consists of several decisions, such as choosing the proper measure of inflation, the level of targeted inflation, targeted range or point etc., which is still a matter of theoretical debates. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the above mentioned debate. After the theoretical discussion, the inflation targeting will be analyzed from the two perspectives. Firstly, in order to evaluate the capability of Croatia to implement the inflation targeting, the analysis of the Croatian monetary system will be given. Secondly, in order to asses the suitability of the inflation targeting as Croatian monetary strategy, both positive and negative characteristics of this strategy will be considered.inflation targeting, monetary strategy, Croatia

Central bank independence: The case of Croatia

A trend of increasing role of central bank's independence took place in the most of modern economies. The central bank independence (CBI) is seen as a way of bringing economy to a higher level. It is argued that an independent central bank is more credible and moreover, that the higher degree of central bank independence facilitates central bank to identify signals of financial problems and alert financial markets. Furthermore, an independent central bank is less likely to be exposed to the inflationary bias, inherent in monetary policy, and is more aware of the inflation costs of expansionary monetary policy. This is in line with Friedman’s theoretical concept that the phenomenon of inflation is to be regulated by controlling the amount of money poured into the national economy by the central bank. In order to achieve the main goal; price stability, it is essential for a central bank to be connected to government as little as possible. However, governments generally have a certain influence over central banks, even in the case of banks who claim to be independent. The first part of the paper offers theoretical background for the central bank independence (CBI concept). The empirical evidence on the relationship between central bank independence and economic variables suggests negative relationship between central bank independence and inflation. The strong evidence of central bank independence influence on other macroeconomic variables so far has not been found. The analysis of the independence of Croatian national bank was made using 3 different methods; 1) central bank governor turnover rate (TOR), 2) Petursson G. Thorarinn criterion and 3) Cukierman, Webb and Neyapti (CWN) questionnaire. The obtained results affirm high level of central bank independence in Croatia.monetary policy, central bank independence

(I)rationality of Investors on Croatian Stock Market – Explaining the Impact of American Indices on Croatian Stock Market

This study aims to detect and explain co-movements and spill over effects between American and Croatian stock markets. Following the methodology and findings of Erjavec and Cota (2007), the dependency of the Crobex index to the main US indices (DJIA, S&P500, NASDAQ) is further examined. The econometric study is widened, and the persistent relationship between Croatian and American indices is additionally elaborated using ARIMA and GARCH models using a different data set (January 3rd, 2005 to November 6th, 2008). Despite the fact that intra-sectoral connections between Croatian and American business sectors are rather weak, it is clear that the investors on the Croatian stock market dominantly rely on American indices movements. This was especially apparent during the beginning of the World Financial Crisis in October 2008 when the prices of Croatian companies had almost nothing to do with their business results. The behaviour of Croatian investors was largely based on the psychological effects of the crisis, and this is why behavioural finance is introduced to explain what pure financial reasoning could not. High correlation and co-movements between Croatian and American indices could be explained by three concepts; global factors, contagion and irrational escalation.ARIMA, GARCH, Crobex, Zagreb Stock Exchange, financial crisis, behavioural finance

Macro & micro aspects of the standard of living and quality of life in a small transition economy: The case of Croatia

Increasing role of quality of life and standard of living took place in countries all over the world, especially nowadays, when numerous effects of the global crisis are felt all over the world. Emerging crisis caused many problems; thereby, in the current situation it is interesting to examine the level of the quality of life and standard of living. The purpose of this paper is to define standard of living and quality of life using objective and subjective indicators. Moreover, special emphasis is on the evaluation of quality of life and living standard in Croatia. After short overview of general development of concepts of standard of living and quality of life, situation in Croatia is analyzed in more details by using different indicators; GDP per capita, shopping basket, GFK basket, households’ expenditures, poverty rate, income inequality, HDI, life satisfaction and happiness, deprivation and optimism about the future. The measures show an increase in the standard of living and quality of life in Croatia, but more importantly, they also show the trend of constant increase in the living costs and the rate of poverty. The level of HDI suggests high level of human development and the results of the level of satisfaction imply that people in Croatia are moderately satisfied with their lives and enjoy a rather high level of happiness. Concerning optimism about the future, Croatian people are mostly optimistic.standard of living, quality of life

Stable Gastric Pentadecapeptide BPC 157 Macroscopic Effect on Haematoma and Swelling in Spinal Cord Injured Rats

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 effect on counteracting haematoma and swelling caused by spinal cord injury

Comparison of Multivariate Statistical Analysis and Machine Learning Methods in Retailing: Research Framework Proposition

The aim of this paper is comparison of multivariate statistical analysis and machine learning methods based on the model used for the measurement of current and forecasting of the future customer profitability. Modern customer profitability analysis shows that customer-company relationship is burdened, beside costs of product, with many other different costs generated by business activities. Such costs generated by logistics, post-sale support, customer administration, sale, marketing etc. are allocated in customer’s base in non-linear way. Allocation can vary significantly from customer to customer, making the reason why each different customer’s monetary unit of revenue does not participate in profit in the same way. The research model uses RFM model to define forecasting variables and neural network, multivariate regression analysis and binary logistic regression as forecasting methods. This paper shows the ways how proposed methods can be used in process of forecasting customer profitability giving comparison of their application in that field. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p

Svojstva i primjena titana i njegovih legura (Prvi dio)

U radu je dan pregled titana i njegovih legura koje su atraktivan konstrukcijski materijali zbog visoke čvrstoće, niske gustoće, odlične korozijske postojanosti, toplinske stabilnosti i biokompatibilnosti. Opisane su najvažnije legure iz skupina α, približno α, α+β i metastabilnih β legura. Prikazane su mogućnosti toplinske obrade s posebnim osvrtom na rastopno žarenje i dozrijevanje kojim α+β i β legure postižu visoke iznose čvrstoće. Opisane su tehnike zavarivanja titana uz komparativni pregled njihovih prednosti i nedostataka. Na kraju je dan pregled područja primjene titanovih legura koje se prvenstveno koriste tamo gdje do izražaja dolaze jedinstvene karakteristike ovog metala, a to su prije svega visoko čvrste strukture i primjene koje zahtijevaju otpornost na koroziju

Real-Time Environmental Parameters Monitoring System

The objective of the RTEPMS (Real-Time Environmental Parameters Monitoring System) project is to design and implement a general-purpose environmental parameter monitoring system. The main focus is on measuring water quality parameters is several use cases. To achieve this goal, monitoring will be based on widely available, relatively cheap Internet of Things (IoT) based hardware. One of the most important use cases, drinking water quality monitoring, is piloted in cooperation with Regional Waterworks for the Montenegrin Cost (RWMC). RWMC is the largest drinking water supply company in Montenegro. Using the 135 km of pipelines it delivers drinking water of the highest quality to the Montenegrin coast. Beside drinking water monitoring use case, other use cases will be implemented and executed, such as water quality monitoring for fish farming as well as the pool (swimming) water quality monitoring. This work is licensed under a&nbsp;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</p