Weekly Review of Slovene Economy from 4 through 11 May

Ljubljana, 11 May - Three world's leading agencies for country creditworthiness assessment (IBCA, Moody's Investors' Service and Standard & Poor's), having paid lengthy visits to Slovenia in April, assigned Slovenia the best creditworthiness indicator of all Central and Eastern European countries in transition. Having drawn objective and independent assessments, all three agencies placed Slovenia in the category "A" marking highest creditworthiness and excellent capacity to meet outstanding payment liabilities. At the Wednesday news conference, Finance Minister Mitja Gaspari publicly presented the creditworthiness assessment stressing that in addition to strengthening position of Slovenia in the international financial community it is also to help support release of Slovene securities in international capital markets. Slovenia is expected to release its first Eurobonds totalling dlrs 200 million in July 1996. The release will be conducted by the bank J. P. Morgan Securities Ltd. which advised the Finance Ministry in preparations for assessing Slovenia's creditworthiness.