In the first nine months of 1994 the payment system between the CR and the SR continued on the basis of the Agreement on Clearing Payment System between the SR and the CR signed after the termination of the monetary union in 1993. Pursuant to this agreement, the settlement of mutual payments is conducted through two clearing accounts, the so called "old and new blocks", which differentiate between payments belonging to operations executed prior to the monetary union and after its termination. A proposal for canceling the old block has been submitted, but this issue has not yet been resolved.
This year, the development of the total deficit on mutual settlement was marked by a transition from a surplus to a deficit balance to the CR's disadvantage. At the beginning of this year the CR's surplus on the new block rapidly increased, thus causing the SR to once again exceed the limit of marginal credit by ECU 46.1 mil. (at the close-1993 this amounted to ECU 38.9 mil.). However, the second decade in February was a turning point in the development of the mutual settlement, when the new block surplus plummeted, and the CR ran a deficit on this block from mid-May. Since July the CR has been exceeding the marginal credit, in July by ECU 0.6 mil., in August by ECU 78 mil. and in September by ECU 79.1 mil.
Due to the fact that since April the volume of collections on the old block from the SR has also decreased, the remaining amount on this account did not more substantially affect the level of the total clearing settlement balance. In the first nine months the balance on both blocks, excluding payments for exceeding the marginal credit, ran a deficit of CZK 12.6 bn.
The consequent trend and the result of the clearing settlement were not only influenced by movements of payments for goods, but also by capital transactions and payments for services. However, the cause for the basic reverse in the mutual settlement must be sought in the movements of goods which were affected by a number of measures particularly on the Slovak side. They had to prevent repeated exceeding of the marginal credit on the mutual clearing accounts (by the imposition of an import surcharge of 10%, the requirement of certificates for imported foodstuffs and through the difference between the Czech and Slovak crowns exchange rates on the new block).