Making Ends Meet

``The Serb land, the American sky and the German currency,'' this is how the inhabitants of the Serb areas in BosniaHerzegovina define their national and political entitythe Serb Republic in Bosnia. The sky is American since NATO planes are the only ones to freely cruise above, while the other two references in this witty definition of the Serb Republic in Bosnia do not need to be explained in detail. The German Mark is the only authority on the Serb land, only in shops it is called a ``point,'' which is how it translates into Serbian.

If such a commodity and monetary system is taken into consideration, then the price of goods expressed in points is multiplied by the value of a Mark on a certain day, or at a certain moment since the inflation rate has reached from between 0.5 to 0.8 per cent an hour. Therefore, one night at Hotel Slavija in Banjaluka will cost you 12 points, which is multiplied by 12 million Dinars in the morning and 17 million Dinars in the afternoon. If you hurry up to the Boska Department Store to change hard currency quickly you will realize that the exchange rate for a Mark is lower than the value of a point. In other words, the hotel manager has included the rise of a Mark for several hours ahead. If you want to be practical and save both time and energy you may as well pay your bill in Marks.

While paying for one night stay in a cold and damp hotel room, it hardly occurs to a guest that he has just spent the amount of money whose value equals 60 highest or 240 guaranteed pensions in the Bosnian Serb Republic, or 12 soldiers' or 3 average salaries.

In a constant race with inflation a Serb soldier has to immediately spend his salary, which he received in Dinars of the Bosnian Serb Republic. A soldier may spend it on a kilo of soup noodles, a worker on a kilo of meat, and a pensioner with the highest pension on a handful of peanuts. A husband who arrives from the front and his wife can distribute their income and buy 5 kilos of bread and three sardinetins, or 12 eggs (3 for a Mark) or 3 kilos of apples. The combinations are countless, but none of them guarantees a full stomach for longer than three days' time.

Employees of solvent firms, such as Banjalukabased ``Incel'' and ``Rudi Cajavec,'' will receive cooking oil, sugar, flour and meat, which were obtained through the connections with the country. An average family would thus be provided for 20 days as far as food is concerned. The inhabitants of the urban areas in the Bosnian Serb Republic are forced to use hard currency savings from the mattresses or other hiding places in order to feed themselves properly.

By force of habit they will first check whether the exchange rate at ``Boska's'' is more favorable than that offered by salesmen and most often than not will pay for goods in hard currency, i.e. points. On the green market 1 kilo of onions costs 2 Marks, 1 kilo of garlic, tangerines or bananas costs 4 Marks, a pound of yeast 5 Marks, 1 kilo of raw coffee beans 4 Marks and 1 kilo of apples 50 Penning.

Everything one needs can be bought on the market. However, a selection of goods is being reduced, so that only most necessary goods will eventually be offered. Besides food, one can find coffee, a carton of cheapest cigarettes (4 Marks), down jackets (90100 Marks), warm shoes...

When a cigarettes dealer ``closes the shop,'' he buys yeast from a yeast dealer for the money he's made or stockings from a person who deals in stockings, and the latter will purchase deodorants, lotions, soaps, etc. from the people who deal in these items after he has bought tobacco. And, all of them will see hard currency dealers in front of ``Boska's'' and change the surplus of Dinars. With the hard currency they've got they will start a new cycle of smuggling, and the money will end up across the border, either directly or through Subotica (Vojvodina) or Novi Pazar (Sandzak).

According to Dusan Jaksic, the Director of the Economic Institute in Banjaluka, between 25 and 30 per cent of economic capacities are currently being used in the Bosnian Serb Republic, as compared with the 60 per cent used before the war. ``Inflation could be much lower despite the present rate of production,'' he said and added, ``Market links have been severed and there is a lack of planned direction and distribution of goods which is a real problem. If we pretend that we are not at war and keep avoiding a planned economy because of the international community it is only natural that the goods in short supply will not be properly distributed.''

The only partner of the Bosnian Serb Republic is the economy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. According to Jaksic, if a lack of discipline on both sides of the Drina River is taken into account, then inflation will spill over from one side to another and vice versa.

``There is a fictitious commodity turnover. There were incursions into the former Yugoslavia's payment system and it is questionable whether the state can prevent them in this situation,'' Jaksic said. At a meeting of businessmen which was held in Serbia Jaksic said, ``Our and your thieves will cost us dearly, all transactions are being conducted independently of the state controlled institutions.'' He illustrated this with the parity of wood from the Bosnian Serb Republic and wheat from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Initially the ratio was 1 to 2 in favor of wood, and has now turned in favour of wheat. ``Such ratio is dictated by the black market,'' he concluded.

The visit of Zarija Martinovic, the Director of the Office for Financial Transactions of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, is being hushed up in Banjaluka. Angry Martinovic arrived in Banjaluka following the inflation shock in Serbia, after a huge amount of Dinars flowed into Serbia from the Serb held parts of BH, causing an astronomic rise of DM.

It seems that the Serbs left of the Drina River have more hard currency than their compatriots on the other side of the river. When asked how come, they will reply that they never had to deal with either Jezda or Dafina.