title
stringlengths 0
135
| body
stringlengths 0
6.43k
|
|---|---|
COSTA RICA SELLS SUGAR TO SOVIET UNION
|
Costa Rica has agreed to sell more
than 32,000 tonnes of sugar this year to the Soviet Union, a
spokesman for local producers said.
Miguel Alfaro, president of the agricultural league of the
sugar cane industry, said the sale follows a recent 50 pct cut
in Costa Rica's quota for sugar exports to the U.S.
Alfaro said up to 45,000 tonnes of sugar could be exported
to the Soviet Union this year under the deal, which is similar
to one the Soviets made recently with the Dominican Republic.
A Soviet ship will load 25,000 tonnes at the Pacific port
of Punta Morales Monday, Alfaro said, and a second ship will
take an additional 7,107 tonnes two days later.
Alfaro and other industry sources declined to disclose the
price at which the sugar was sold.
Reuter
|
DANGER OF ARBITRAGE TRADING DOWNPLAYED
|
Stock index-related arbitrage
trading did not spark the dramatic drop in the U.S. stock
market last September, nor is a free-fall in stocks and futures
prices due to arbitrage trading a likelihood, a top official
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, said.
Richard Ketchum, director of SEC's division of market
regulation, told the Futures Industry Association that a
commission study of the circumstances surrounding the plunge in
the Dow Jones Industrial Average last September 11-12 shows
stock index-related arbitrage trading those days was
substantial but did not set off the price fluctuations.
"While index-related arbitrage trading was a very
substantial part of the trading that day, it was by no means
the predominant part," Ketchum said.
He said the study would be released next week.
Index-related arbitrage relates to efforts, primarily by
institutional investors, to profit from price differentials by
shifting funds between stock index futures and their underlying
stocks.
Some commodity exchange officials fear federal regulators
or Congress might move to restrict trading of stock index
futures in an effort to curb stock price volatility.
Ketchum said the slide in stock prices was the result of a
"fundamental change in investors' perceptions of economic
conditions," triggered by "incorrect rumors" that West Germany
was set to cut its discount rate.
The SEC study indicated the seven firms that accounted for
most of the arbitrage trading those days made 127 program
trades on September 11 and 117 trades September 12, accounting
for only 17.5 pct of the "sell side of the New York Stock
Exchange's volume," Ketchum said.
He also said there was virtually no options index-related
arbitrage activity those days.
Ketchum called "triple witching days" -- the Fridays each
quarter when stock index futures and options and opions on
individual stocks expire simultaneously - a "relatively minor,
overdone question" that has "relatively easy solutions."
Moreover, "futures do not appear to have an impact on
long-term or probably even daily volatility," he said.
Finally, Ketchum said a free-fall in stocks and futures
prices driven by program sell-offs of stock index futures and
individual stocks was unlikely.
"We believe that the amount of money now available to come
in on the other side of the market by institutions make it
unlikely that that kind of snowballing effect would happen," he
said.
But he said federal regulators could not discard the
possibility and would continue to be concerned by the issue.
Reuter
|
CORNING GLASS <GLW> SELLS DEBT AT 8.25 PCT
|
Corning Glass Works is raising 75 mln
dlrs through an issue of 8-1/4 pct, 15-year non-callable
debentures priced at par, underwriters Goldman, Sachs and Co
and Lazard Freres and Co said.
Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.
Reuter
|
BAYOU INTERNATIONAL BUYS STAKE IN SOLOMECS
|
<Bayou International Ltd> said it
purchased one-third of the outstanding stock of Solmecs Corp
N.V., a Netherlands Antilles corporation, for 1,750,000 dlrs.
Bayou said it will also receive two seats on Solmecs'
board.
Bayou Ltd is 55.2 pct owned by Australia Wide Industries
Ltd.
Solmecs develops technology relating to energy conversion.
Reuter
|
MICROPRO INTERNATIONAL CORP <MPRO> 4TH QTR NET
|
Quarter ended Feb 28
Shr four cts vs seven cts
Net 500,000 vs 900,000
Revs 9,200,000 vs 10,500,000
Year
Shr four cts vs 12 cts
Net 600,000 vs 1,500,000
Revs 17.6 mln vs 20.8 mln
Reuter
|
TOFRUZEN <YUMYC> TO REMAIN LISTED ON NASDAQ
|
Tofruzen Inc said it received
an exception to the NASD's asset requirement, allowing its
units, common stock and warrants to remain listed on the NASDAQ
system.
Reuter
|
(EXPLOSIVE FABRICATORS INC) 1ST QTR JAN 31 NET
|
Net 41,724 vs 120,329
Revs 1,194,556 vs 1,504,702
Reuter
|
TRANS-CANADA RESOURCES GETS CREDITOR EXTENSION
|
<Trans-Canada Resources Ltd>
said an Alberta court on March 6 granted it an extension to
April 6 from March 9 on Trans-Canada's filing of a plan of
arrangement with the court and extended to May 22 a stay of
legal proceedings against the company.
The court also ruled that shareholders' and creditors's
meetings must occur by May 4, Trans-Canada said.
Reuter
|
NEW CHIEF ELECTED FOR WORLD SUGAR ORGANISATION
|
Dominican Alfredo Ricart will take over
as executive director of the International Sugar Organization
(ISO) in mid-April, ISO officer in charge Constantin Politoff
said.
Previous ISO chief William Miller retired at end-February
last year.
Ricart told Reuters his first aim is put the "house in order"
by having a new administrative sugar pact with improved
allocations of voting rights and financial contributions.
Once this is done, time can be dedicated to working towards
a new International Sugar Agreement (ISA) with economic
clauses, he said.
Ricart, currently the Dominican Republic's ambassador to
Austria, the Netherlands and the UN in Geneva, said he will
visit the four major exporters - Australia, Brazil, Cuba and
the European Community - to talk to governments and producers
and find out about problems that are preventing these countries
finding common ground for a new sugar pact.
Reuter
|
DELMED <DMD> SELLS RIGHTS, PAYS CREDITORS
|
Delmed Inc said it sold sales
and distribution rights of its peritoneal dialysis products to
National Medical Care Inc and entered a five-year agreement to
supply National Medical with dialysis solutions.
Terms were not disclosed. Half of the proceeds from the
sale went to its principal bank group and unsecured creditors
who had extended payment schedules, Delmed said.
The remaining proceeds will be used for production
expansion at its Ogden, Utah plant, it said.
Delmed said future payments from supply agreement were
pledged to its bank group as additional security. If Delmed is
not in default at the time of payment, the banks will release
the payment for Delmed to use for corporate purposes, it said.
It also said that as soon as it is able to do so, Delmed
plans to pay all interest due on its convertible subordinated
debentures due 2002 on which interest has not been paid since
May 15, 1985.
Reuter
|
INTERNATIONAL SUGAR PACT TO BE RENEGOTIATED
|
The International Sugar Agreement (ISA)
will be renegotiated, International Sugar Organization (ISO)
officer in charge Constantin Politoff told Reuters after a
special session of the pact's council.
A decision on how to renegotiate will be taken at the ISO
six monthly session in May. The alternatives are between an
autumn London conference for another pact without economic
clauses, but a different voting and budgetary structure, or a
Geneva-based conference next year for a new pact with economic
clauses, he said.
But delegates said the latter would only be considered if
the world's four major exporters -- Australia, Brazil, Cuba and
the European Community -- can resolve differences over how
prices can best be supported and how to share the world
Today's special session was called because the U.S. earlier
indicated it would only be able to pay 56 pct of its share of
the ISO budget.
At today's council session Politoff said the U.S. would try
and find a way to pay the balance of about 50,000 stg later
this year. Currently, about three quarters of this year's ISO
800,000 stg budget has not been paid but delegates said the
U.S. caused controversy as it said it might not pay its full
contribution in the last year of the current pact.
The Soviet Union has called for changes to the way the ISO
budget is shared out. Currently it is halved between importers
and exporters and the Soviet Union has a 30 pct share of the
importer half. The Soviets want a new sugar pact to have only a
single category of members who would all share the costs pro
rata to their share of world sugar trade.
The ISO executive committee next meets on April 23 with the
next full council session in the week of May 19.
There are 12 importing and 44 exporting members of the ISO.
Reuter
|
THE GAP INC <GPS> NAMES PRESIDENT
|
The Gap Inc said it named
Millard Drexler as its president.
Drexler, 42, had been executive vice preisdent for
merchandising and president of the Gap Stores Division.
Previously, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Donald
Fisher also held the position of president as well.
Drexler retains his position as president and chief
executive officer of the Gap Stores Division.
Reuter
|
LASER <LSER> SEES IMPACT FROM SUIT ON EARNINGS
|
Laser Corp said that costs associated
with its defense of two shareholder lawsuits could result in a
net loss for 1987.
Although Laser expects to post earnings from operations for
the year, a spokesman said they might be wiped out by legal
costs, depending on the length of litigation.
In addition, the company said it will ask shareholders to
approve proposals to merge the company into its main
subsidiary, reincorporate in Delaware and change the company's
name.
Reuter
|
E.C. OFFICIAL SAYS FATE OF VEG OIL TAX UNCERTAIN
|
Whether the European Community's
Council of Ministers will approve a proposed tax on vegetable
oils that has sparked threats of U.S. retaliation is uncertain,
an EC official said.
"It is very far from certain that it will go through," Sir
Roy Denman, Head of the EC Delegation in Washington, told
reporters before he addressed the Foreign Trade Association.
Denman noted Britain remains opposed to the plan and West
Germany has opposed it in the past.
U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter has threatened
retaliation if the tax is approved, as it would limit U.S.
soybean exports to the EC. Council action is expected soon.
Denman said while the EC is willing to negotiate about
agriculture in a new round of trade talks, it is unwilling to
single out export subsidies on a negotiating agenda or put
agricultural policy on a special fast track.
"The key to a solution in this area seems to me not in the
framing of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
wording...but in tackling government subsidies to farmers on
both sides of the Atlantic," he said.
Reuter
|
PENSION INSURANCE GROUP <PGAI> 4TH QTR
|
Shr profit two cts vs profit two cts
Net profit 216,000 vs 265,000
Revs 1.7 mln vs 1.4 mln
Year
Shr profit four cts vs loss two cts
Net profit 528,000 vs loss 290,000
Revs 5.9 mln vs 5.5 mln
NOTE:1986 net includes realized investment gains of 3,000
dlrs in year. 1985 4th qtr and year includes realized
investment gains of 16,000 and 35,000 dlr respectively.
Reuter
|
TRANSAMERICA CORP <TA> QUARTERLY DIVIDEND
|
Qtly div 44 cts vs 44 cts
Pay April 30
Record April 4
Reuter
|
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON CO <SCE> QTLY DIV
|
Qtly div 57 cts vs 57 cts
Pay April 30
Record April 3
Reuter
|
COMPREHENSIVE CARE CORP <CMPH> QUARTERLY DIV
|
Qtly div nine cts vs nine cts
Pay May 21
Record May 1
Reuter
|
GREAT WESTERN SAVINGS BANK <GWSB> QUARTERLY DIV
|
Qtly div 12 cts vs 12 cts
Pay April 8
Record April 1
Reuter
|
SENATE WANTS JAPAN SEMICONDUCTER PACT ENFORCED
|
The U.S. Senate has unanimously
called for President Reagan immediately to force Japan to live
up to a pledge to stop dumping its microchips and open its
markets to U.S. Chipmakers.
The Senate voted 93 to 0 to urge Reagan to impose penalties
on Japanese high-technology products containing semiconductors
in retaliation for what it sees as Japan's violations of the
semiconductor pact.
While the measure does not bind Reagan to any action,
Senate leaders said its adoption would warn Japan stiffer
legislation would be considered if the violations continue.
"We want to send a message to Japan to let it know how the
Senate feels about this matter," Senate Democratic Leader Robert
Byrd told the Senate.
Senate Finance Committee chairman Lloyd Bentsen told the
Senate the measure was not aimed at retaliation but at
correcting Japan's unfair trade practices.
A key House trade lawmaker, Representative Richard Gephardt
also announced he would seek to force Japan and other countries
with huge trade surpluses to slash their surplus by 10 pct a
year for three years.
REUTER
|
PRESIDENT REAGAN SAYS HE WILL VETO ANY TAX INCREASE VOTED BY CONGRESS
| |
PRESIDENT REAGAN URGES PASSAGE OF BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT
| |
PRESIDENT REAGAN VOWS TO VETO ANY TAX INCREASE
|
President Ronald Reagan said he
would veto any tax increases voted by Congress.
"My pledge to veto any tax rate increase remains rock solid,"
Reagan said during a televised news conference.
The president said he opposed efforts by some members of
Congress to back away from deficit reduction targets set by the
Gramm-Rudman balanced budget law. He urged passage of a
constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
"It's time Congress cut the federal budget and left the
family budget alone," Reagan said.
He said the congressional budget process was in desperate
need of reform and urged passage of an amendment to the U.S.
constitution that would require a balanced federal budget.
"This yearly deficit feeding process must stop," he added. "We
must act now to pass a constitutional amendment to balance the
budget."
In the meantime, he said, Congress cannot back away from
the deficit reduction goals set by federal law he said.
Reuter
|
REAGAN DENIES TOLD IRAN PROFITS WENT TO CONTRAS
|
President Reagan denied he had been
told that profits from sales of arms to Iran had been used to
aid the U.S.-backed "contra" rebels in Nicaragua.
"No, that is not true," he said before a televised news
conference when asked about reports that he had been told about
the money diversion by his former National Security Adviser,
John Poindexter.
Reagan was giving his first formal White House press
conference in four months since the Iran arms affair burst into
scandal with the disclosure profits from weapons sales had been
diverted, possibly illegally, to the contras.
He said the secret approach to Iran had resulted in the
release of three American hostages held by pro-Iranian elements
in Lebanon and that it might have freed more if the operation
had not been made public.
Reagan told reporters -- as he had told a presidential
commission that investigated the scandal -- that he did not
remember when he had approved an August, 1985, shipment of U.S.
arms to Iran through Israel.
Reagan opened the news conference -- seen as vital in
rebuilding his damaged presidency and restoring his authority
-- with a statement on the yawning U.S. budget deficit.
He again stated his opposition to tax increases and called
for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.
Asked if in hindsight he would again start a secret program
to sell arms to Iran, Reagan said, "No, I would not go down that
same road again."
Tonight's news conference was widely seen as an opportunity
for Reagan, 76, to demonstrate he was in command of affairs
despite the crisis.
Reagan said, referring to the Iran arms program, "If I
hadn't thought it was right in the beginning, I never would
have started it."
He said he went into the deal because he was persuaded that
he was not dealing directly with the kidnappers.
"You cannot do business with them," he said.
But "suddenly you have a third party there (Iran) ... and it
was not trading with the kidnappers," he said.
The news conference in the White House East Room lasted 32
minutes -- two minutes more than normal -- most of which was
devoted to the Iran affair.
At the last minute, a reporter asked whether Vice President
George Bush had opposed the arms sales as Secretary of State
George Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger had done.
Reagan replied, "No," smiled, waved and walked away from the
podium toward the White House residence.
Reuter
|
PRESIDENT REAGAN SAYS U.S. STILL INVESTIGATING ACID RAIN PROBLEM
| |
REAGAN SAYS U.S. STILL PROBING ACID RAIN PROBLEM
|
President Reagan said the U.S.
government is still looking into the problem of acid rain.
"We're still investigating this," he told a nationally
televised news conference.
Reagan added that the government will now work with U.S.
industry to help address the problem.
However, he declined to endorse the writing of federal
standards for emissions that would help alleviate the problem.
The Reagan administration yesterday announced a 2.5 billion
dlr, five-year program to deal with acid rain, a problem that
troubles U.S. relations with Canada.
Reagan was asked by a reporter whether the government
should set emission standards.
He responded that the deeper that officials went in
examining the acid rain problem, the more complex it appeared.
He said the government did not want to rush into adopting a
measure that might ultimately prove fruitless.
Reuter
|
REAGAN SAYS U.S. MUST DO MORE TO LESSEN RELIANCE ON FOREIGN OIL
| |
REAGAN SAYS U.S. NEEDS TO LESSEN OIL IMPORTS
|
President Reagan said the United
States must do more to lessen its reliance on imported oil.
President Reagan said during a nationally televised news
conference that the rising U.S. reliance on foreign oil is a
problem that the administration is studying.
"We have to study this more," Reagan said. "This is why we
increased the Strategic (Petroleum) Reserve, but we have to do
more," he said.
Reagan said his administration has already proposed
deregulating natural gas and eliminating the windfall profits
tax on crude oil production.
However, he complained that Congress had not yet approved
those measures.
The Department of Energy earlier this week released a
report that warned of rising U.S. reliance on foreign oil
imports at a time when domestic production is declining. It
suggested options for the administration to consider, but made
no specific recommendations.
Reuter
|
BELGRADE UNIONS ATTACK YUGOSLAV PAY FREEZE
|
Belgrade trade union leaders have
joined attacks on a controversial wage freeze in Yugoslavia and
reported strikes spreading to the capital.
Miodrag Lazarevic, president of the Belgrade trade unions
council, said the government must take responsibility for the
effects of the law imposing the wage freeze.
Under the law, which was enacted on February 27 and will
remain in force until July 1, wage levels of the last quarter
of 1986 were reimposed and future pay rises were pegged to
productivity. The move has caused resentment and widespread
industrial unrest throughout the country.
Another Belgrade trade union council leader, Predrag
Petrovic, was quoted as saying hundreds of workers had been on
strike in Belgrade.
Yugoslav trade unions are an integral part of the communist
political system and their role has traditionally not been to
defend workers from the government. The criticisms by the
Belgrade union leaders indicated wider trade union resentment
of the law than earlier reported.
The government has officially reported 70 strikes
throughout the country, although Yugoslav newspapers have
indicated there have been more.
REUTER
|
TAIWAN'S EXPORT ORDERS FALL IN FEBRUARY
|
Export orders for Taiwanese products
fell 1.37 pct to 3.58 billion U.S. Dlrs in February from 3.63
billion in January, but rose nearly 43 pct from 2.51 billion a
year earlier, an Economic Ministry official said.
He attributed the fall to the rising Taiwan dollar.
February orders for electric and electronic goods were 619
mln U.S. Dlrs, up from 574 mln in January and 370 mln in
February 1986. Garment orders were 324 mln dlrs against 383 mln
and 283 mln while footwear orders were 297 mln compared with
333 mln and 200 mln.
REUTER
|
WEIZSAECKER CALLS FOR EASIER ARGENTINA DEBT TERMS
|
West German President Richard von
Weizsaecker called on creditor banks to ease pressure on
Argentina's foreign debt repayment terms.
"We cannot remain indifferent to the pressure of creditor
banks, since there is correlation between political stability
and the economic situation," Weizsaecker told reporters.
Argentina said last month it would suspend debt payments if
creditor banks did not loosen repayment terms and grant a new
2.15 billion dlr loan.
Argentina's debt is Latin America's third largest at 51
billion dlrs.
Weizsaecker, on a four-day official visit to Argentina,
said: "Argentina's problems require joint action from creditor
and debtors countries," and not prepared recipes from creditor
banks.
A group of ecologists staged a demonstration to protest
Argentina's plans to build a fourth nuclear power plant and a
German company's role in the project as a contractor.
Earlier, Weizsaecker said that the potential of Patagonia,
the barren tableland covering a third of Argentina, could
assure the economic future of the country.
REUTER
|
BOLIVIAN MINERS CALL GENERAL STRIKE
|
About 9,000 miners employed by the
state corporation, Comibol, declared a general strike as from
midnight (0400 gmt) to press for higher salaries, a statement
by the federation for Bolivian mine workers said.
It said the strike was called to defend the nationalised
mining industry. The miners were willing to negotiate with the
government of President Victor Paz Estenssoro, but only if it
showed an intention to meet the strikers' demands.
The government said the strike was designed to cause it
embarrassment during the four-day visit of West German
President Richard Von Weizsaecker, which starts on Friday.
The miners statement said police had violently evicted
Comibol office workers in the city of Oruro after they began a
hunger strike yesterday.
The government has sacked about 20,000 miners from its
deficit-ridden corporation since the collapse in the
international price of tin. The lay-offs represent about
two-thirds of the original workforce.
REUTER
|
CHINESE PORT UNDERUSED DESPITE CONGESTION NEARBY
|
The Chinese port of Ningbo is
working well below capacity despite being only 130 miles from
Shanghai, which is seriously congested, a port official said.
Jiang Feng Xiang said the port -- the deepest in China --
handled 17.95 mln tonnes of cargo last year, up from 10.44 mln
in 1985, but well below its potential capacity of 32 mln
tonnes. Shanghai handled 100 mln tonnes of cargo in 1986.
Jiang said Ningbo is under-utilised because of its
inadequate facilities, including a single track rail line
linking it to Hangzhou, where it joins the national network.
Ningbo handles crude oil exports and transhipments of coal
from north to south China and imports include fertiliser and
soda ash and iron ore from Brazil and Australia. The docks can
handle ships of up to 150,000 tonnes and oil tankers of up to
200,000 tonnes can load and unload in the harbour.
Most of Ningbo's port infrastructure has been built since
1979, official publications show. A container berth and two
timber and three general cargo berths will be added during the
current 1986-90 five-year plan, Jiang said.
"The rail line to Hangzhou will be double tracked by 1995.
By 2000, maybe, we will overtake Shanghai," he added.
REUTER
|
U.S. SAY SOVIET UNION HAS EXCEEDED MISSILE PACT
|
President Reagan accused the Soviet
Union of exceeding a traditional restrictive reading of the
1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, but said the U.S. Saw no
reason yet to follow suit.
"We believe that the Soviet Union has been going even beyond
a liberal interpretation of the treaty," he said at a news
conference.
There has been speculation the U.S. Administration was
moving toward a looser reading of the treaty in order to permit
the development of the "Star Wars" anti-missile system, but
Reagan said no decision has yet been made.
REUTER
|
JAPAN ECONOMIC PACKAGE AFTER BUDGET - MIYAZAWA
|
Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said
Japan plans to announce a package of economic measures
immediately after the 1987/88 budget passes Parliament.
The passage of the full budget is expected after May 20 as
the government has decided to compile a 50-day stop-gap budget
for the year starting April 1. An opposition boycott over a
proposed sales tax has disrupted parliamentary business.
Miyazawa told a press conference Prime Minister Yasuhiro
Nakasone is unlikely to take the package to Washington.
Nakasone hopes to meet President Reagan in late April or
early May to prepare for the Venice economic summit in June.
Asked if he planned to visit the U.S. To attend monetary
conferences including International Monetary Fund meetings in
early April, Miyazawa said he will make a decision carefully on
the matter, taking into account parliament debate.
The package is likely to include a record amount of public
works spending in the first 1987/88 half, Miyazawa said.
Miyazawa said the provisional budget will total about 8,800
billion yen and incorporate a little more than 1,800 billion
for public works. Japan expects the stop-gap budget to help
spur the economy, Miyazawa said.
Miyazawa said the Government and the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party will seek the passage of the bills related to
the controversial sales tax without any revision.
Japanese press reports had previously interpretated remarks
by a top government official as indicating a revision of the
tax but the official did not mean that, Miyazawa said.
REUTER
|
VOLCKER SAYS U.S. TRADE DEFICIT IS MAJOR CHALLENGE
|
Federal Reserve Board
Chairman Paul Volcker said the U.S. Trade deficit is a
challenge for the U.S. Equal to the Soviet Union launching of
Sputnik.
"The international challenge implicit in our huge trade
deficit has become the 1980s equivalent to the launch of
Sputnik by the Russians in the 1950s, when we suddenly feared
we were to be left in the wake of Soviet technological
achievement," he said in an address to Florida educators.
He said the trade problem underscored the need to reform
the U.S. Educational system to improve economic performance.
The Commerce Department reported last week that the
nation's trade gap, calculated on a balance-of-payments basis,
swelled to a record 38.37 billion dlrs in the fourth quarter,
bringing the 1986 deficit to a record 147.71 billion dlrs.
Volcker called on educators to stress the development of
basic reading, writing and mathematics skills and urged them to
help students adapt to the fast-changing economic climate.
Volcker said the challenge was greatest in the education of
low-income minority groups such as blacks and Hispanics.
REUTER
|
SHORT-TERM YEN INTEREST RATES SEEN FALLING SOON
|
Japanese short-term interest rates,
buoyed recently by seasonal factors, are likely to fall from
the beginning of April when the new financial year begins,
money traders said.
The Bank of Japan is expected to encourage the trend
following its attempts to pressure rates to enhance its
discount rate cut on February 23, they said.
The Bank cut the rate to 2.5 pct from three, and began
actively injecting funds into the money market to offset rate
rises resulting from the end-of-fiscal-year surge in demand for
funds from financial institutions.
Despite its attempts to dampen rates with measures such as
aggressive commercial bill purchases, the central bank has
failed to remove all upward pressure, money traders said.
Attractive interest rates offered by domestic banks to
compete for time deposits of more than 600 mln yen has
underpinned short-term rates, they said.
Interest rates on time deposits of more than 600 mln yen
were decontrolled by the Finance Ministry last September.
This resulted in such deposits with domestic banks rising
to 17,830 billion yen by the end-December, a three-fold
increase on end-December 1985 levels, bankers said.
On March 31, the money market expects to see a 2,000
billion yen surplus resulting from government payment of fiscal
funds, money traders said.
From April 1, they predict the unconditional call rate will
fall to 3.5000 pct from 3.7500 pct today and the one-month
commercial bill discount rate to drop to 3.7500 pct from 4.0635
pct.
They predict the three-month bill discount rate to slip to
3.875 pct from 4.0000 today and the three-month certificate of
deposit rate to slide to 4.10/4.15 from 4.35/25.
REUTER
|
KRUNG THAI BANK TO TAKE OVER SAYAM BANK
|
The state-owned Krung Thai Bank Ltd
will start taking over state-owned Sayam Bank Ltd and complete
the process in a year, Finance Minister Suthee Singhasaneh told
a press conference.
He said the takeover decision was made this week to stem
the current heavy losses of Sayam and to avoid competition
between the two state-owned institutions.
The minister said some of the existing 30 Sayam Bank
branches will be merged with their Krung Thai counterparts,
while others will continue operating but under Krung Thai's
name.
Sayam Bank has existed since August 1984 when the Finance
Ministry took over and re-named the Asia Trust Bank Ltd.
Sayam president Waree Havanonda told reporters last month
her bank posted a loss of more than 400 mln baht in 1986. At
the end of 1985 the bank, with 13.8 billion baht of assets, was
ranked 12th among Thailand's 16 local commercial banks.
Waree said Sayam Bank was trying to recall about six to
seven billion baht of loans extended by its previous private
management and was taking legal action to collect another four
to five billion baht of doubtful debts.
Krung Thai is Thailand's third largest bank.
REUTER
|
JAPAN TURNS AWAY FAKE SOUTH KOREAN FOOTWEAR
|
Japanese customs, faced with a flood of
fake Reebok sneakers from South Korea, have turned away some
100,000 pairs since last summer, Rebook officials said.
A Ministry of Finance spokesman said officials at the ports
of Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama and Kobe had begun barring
counterfeit footwear but declined to say how many pairs.
A spokesman for Reebok Japan, the local subsidiary of
Reebok International <RBK> of Avon, Massachussetts, said the
firm had complained of the influx to the Ministry last July.
"They use our trademark and everything. And it's easy to
fake our trademark," the Reebok spokesman said.
He said customs had sent back some 100,000 pairs to South
Korea, but the Finance Ministry declined to confirm this.
"Because of various reasons, we cannot say how many pairs
have been turned away," the ministry spokesman said.
The Reebok spokesman said an unspecified number of fake
Reeboks have made it into the country, and were being sold at
cut-rate prices in Tokyo and Osaka stores.
"They go for about 20 to 30 pct less than the price of
genuine Reeboks," the spokesman said. A pair of real Reeboks
sells for about 10,000 yen in Japan.
The government last summer warned stores not to carry the
shoes and Reebok has sued two for continuing to sell them, he
said. No action has been taken against the South Korean
manufacturers, he said.
Reebok has also found counterfeits from Taiwan and the
Philippines aimed at the U.S. Market and fakes from Spain
targetted at European markets, he said.
REUTER
|
KOMATSU LTD <KOMT.T> YEAR 1986
|
Group shr 17.68 yen vs 26.49
Net 14.70 billion vs 21.92 billion
Pretax 35.76 billion vs 48.85 billion
Operating 32.88 billion vs 51.90 billion
Sales 788.73 billion vs 796.24 billion
NOTE - Company forecast for current year is group net
15.50 billion on sales of 800 billion.
REUTER
|
AUSTRALIAN TREASURY NOTE TENDER 500 MLN DLRS
|
The Reserve Bank said it would offer 400
mln dlrs of 13-week treasury notes and 100 mln of 26-week notes
for tender next week
The bank said it would not take up any stock at next week's
auction.
REUTER
|
S. KOREAN FEBRUARY CURRENT ACCOUNT SURPLUS NARROWS
|
South Korea's current account surplus
narrowed to 419 mln dlrs in February from 679 mln in January
compared with a deficit of 112 mln dlrs in February last year,
provisional Bank of Korea figures show.
The current account in the two months of January and
February swung to a surplus of 1.1 billion dlrs from a deficit
of 494 mln dlrs in the same 1986 period.
The February trade surplus narrowed to 235 mln dlrs from
582 mln in January compared with a deficit of 98 mln dlrs a
year ago.
The overall balance of payments surplus rose to 840 mln
dlrs in February from 716 mln in January and 76 mln in February
1986.
Exports were 2.86 billion dlrs in February against 2.83
billion in January and 2.23 billion in February last year.
Imports were 2.63 billion against 2.25 billion and 2.32
billion.
The February invisible trade surplus rose to 109 mln dlrs
from 24 mln in January and compared with a deficit of 74 mln a
year ago.
The transfer payments surplus widened to 75 mln dlrs in
February from 73 mln in January and 60 mln a year ago.
The long-term capital account surplus was 198 mln dlrs in
February against 211 mln in January and 55 mln in February last
year. The short-term capital account surplus was 87 mln dlrs
against 46 mln and 158 mln.
The errors and omissions account left a surplus of 840 mln
dlrs in February against deficits of 220 mln in January and 25
mln in February 1986.
REUTER
|
KIRIN BREWERY CO LTD <KNBW.T> YEAR TO JANUARY 31
|
Parent shr 37.12 yen vs 34.97
Div 9.50 yen vs 7.50
Net 33.34 billion vs 31.05 billion
Current 79.30 billion vs 73.32 billion
Operating 72.13 billion vs 65.53 billion
Sales 1,222 billion vs 1,211 billion
Outstanding shrs 897.96 mln vs 887.76 mln
NOTE - 1986/87 dividend included two yen bonus dividend to
mark 80th anniversary. Company forecast for current year is
parent shr 37.86 yen, div 7.50 yen, net 34 billion, current 81
billion and sales 1,250 billion.
REUTER
|
ECONOMIC SPOTLIGHT - ASIAN DROUGHTS
|
Three geographically diverse droughts
in Asia are being linked by some scientists to a
reintensification of the complex and little-understood El Nino
weather pattern, <Accu-Weather Inc>, a commercial weather
forecasting service, said.
Rice and wheat farmers in China, wheat and sugarcane
growers in Australia and tea planters in Sri Lanka all face
serious losses to their respective harvests unless rains arrive
in time to break the droughts, offical reports, government
officials and meteorologists said.
Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong daily with close Peking links, said
the drought is the worst in over 20 years and some provinces
have been without adequate rainfall for more than seven months.
Rice planting is threatened in eight provinces, it added.
Rainfall in the key farming provinces of Henan and Sichuan
was 70 pct below average during February, the lowest figure for
over 20 years, the paper said.
The dry weather has cut stored water volumes by over 20 pct
compared with last March and lowered the water levels of many
rivers, it added.
This has resulted in reduced hydro-electric power, causing
shortages to industry and households. The upper reaches of the
Yangtze are at their lowest levels in a century, causing many
ships to run aground, Wen Wei Po said.
Unusually high temperatures have also been reported across
China, media reports said. The People's Daily said Sichuan has
recorded temperatures three degrees Celsius higher than average
since early February.
The New China News Agency said the average December
temperature in Harbin in the northeast was six degrees higher
than last December and 14 degrees higher than December 1984.
Severe drought is affecting about one-third of Sri Lanka
and threatens to reduce the country's tea crop, Ministry of
Plantation Industries officials told Reuters
In Australia, concern is growing about below-average
rainfall levels in parts of the sugarcane belt along the
Queensland coast and in Western Australia's wheat belt, local
Meteorological Bureau officials said.
For many farmers and government officials the fear is that
while the present low rainfall does not yet pose a major
threat, the prospect of a dry autumn/winter season when the
wheat crop is in its early stages certainly does, they added.
Concern is heightened by the memory of the 1982/83 drought
which devastated the wheat crop and coincided with the
occurrence of the barely understood weather phenomenon known as
El Nino, they said.
Although meteorologists are cautious about linking the
Asia-Pacific region's disrupted weather patterns to any single
cause, El Nino's role is being closely studied, they said.
Accu-Weather Inc, which specialises in providing data for
agriculture and shipping interests, said each El Nino 'event'
was unique.
The El Nino does not always produce the same effects and
the present occurrence is much less pronounced than the last
major event in 1982/83, it said.
El Nino, Spanish for "Christ Child" because it appears around
Christmas, is formed by the action of warm air, bearing clouds
and rain, shifting from the Indonesian archipelago to the coast
of Peru, where it mingles with the cold waters associated with
the Peru current and returns across the Pacific as the trade
winds, meteorologists said.
The winds, strengthened by El Nino's "pump" effect, raise the
sea level off Australia and Indonesia, they said.
When the winds drop, the ocean, seeking equilibrium, sends
a surge of warmer water back across the Pacific where it
collides with the cold seas off Peru, they said.
One effect of this heat exchange is to deflect the
rain-bearing clouds away from Australia and Indonesia into the
Pacific, where they further disrupt other weather patterns.
The prospects for an end to the droughts vary, Accu-Weather
said.
China, where the affected areas have received between 40
and 75 pct of normal rainfall, will have to wait for the
May-September rains, it said.
The May-September rains normally provide the
drought-striken areas with 80 pct of annual rainfall.
In Australia, areas of Queensland's coastal strip have
received less than half the normal rainfall during the current
wet season, but prospects for increased rains are diminishing
as the rainy season draws to an end.
In Sri Lanka, the drought has come when rainfall should be
at its maximum for the year. The year's secondary rains usually
occur between April and June, although it is not possible at
this stage to forecast whether they will arrive as usual.
REUTER
|
MORGAN GUARANTY OFFERS AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR ISSUES
|
<Morgan Guaranty Australia Ltd> said
it is expanding its 200 mln U.S. Dlr Euro-commercial paper
program to include Australian dollar issues.
The proportion of the facility to be issued in Australian
dollar paper will depend on investor demand, but the total
outstanding value will still not exceed 200 mln U.S. Dlrs.
Morgan Guaranty Ltd's Hong Kong office will act as dealer
for the Australian dollar issues.
Under the program, notes in denominations of one mln dlrs
will be issued, with maturities ranging from seven days to one
year.
REUTER
|
VOLCKER SAYS BRAZIL DEBT MOVE WILL NOT HURT BANKS
|
Federal Reserve Board
Chairman Paul Volcker said the suspension by Brazil of its
foreign debt payments would not undermine U.S. Banks.
But he told Reuters after a speech to educators that it was
in the interest of U.S. Banks to complete debt financing plans
soon with Brazil and other debtor nations.
"I don't think it's going to undermine public confidence in
the banking system from Brazil alone," he said. "But I would like
to see further progress made on this whole situation."
Brazil announced last month it was temporarily suspending
interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of debt owed to private
banks, opening a new round in the five-year-old debt crisis.
Last week, Ecuador suspended interest payments to private
foreign banks, which hold about two-thirds of its total 8.3
billion dlr foreign debt, citing severe damage to its oil
industry caused by an earthquake.
Citicorp <CCI> the largest U.S. Bank, said last week that
it might have to reclassify most of its 4.6 billion dlrs in
Brazilian loans as non-performing, thus removing them as part
of the bank's expected income-producing assets.
Analysts said such a move would sharply reduce Citicorp's
profits and might result in similar measures by Brazil's other
bank creditors.
Volcker said he believed Brazil and Ecuador want to
maintain continuity in their debt service.
"It's fundamentally in their best interest. If they can get
the financing and refinancing that's necessary, they may be
able to make their economies grow again."
Asked whether he expected other nations to follow the path
taken by Brazil and Ecuador, he said the two countries were
special cases. He did not elaborate.
REUTER
|
RAINBOW AND EQUITICORP PLACE ULTRAMAR STAKE
|
New Zealand investment companies
<Rainbow Corp Ltd> and <Equiticorp Holdings Ltd> have placed
the majority of their joint shareholding in oil and gas
conglomerate Ultramar PLC <UMAR.L> at prices up to 2.20 stg per
share, the companies said in a statement.
The companies said they had bought their 4.9 pct stake in
Ultramar for a total of 50 mln N.Z. Dlrs through a joint
venture company formed for that purpose in October.
They said the joint venture made a profit of 15 mln N.Z.
Dlrs on the deal, but they did say how many shares they had
sold. No further details of the sale were available.
REUTER
|
CHINA OMITS KEY REFORM FROM PARLIAMENTARY AGENDA
|
Hardliners have blocked debate on a key
economic reform in China's parliament, a clear challenge to
reformers among the leadership, western diplomats said.
The annual session of the National People's Congress next
week was to have discussed a draft law which would bolster the
independence of factory chiefs while eroding the power of local
Communist Party officials.
The decision not to include the draft law was announced by
the congress's standing committee, the People's Daily said. The
committee's chairman is Peng Zhen, considered one of the more
conservative figures in the Chinese leadership.
The "factory director responsibility system" covered by the
draft law has already been experimentally introduced in state
firms over the last three years, giving managers greater
freedom from the control of factory party committees.
Diplomats said the agenda decision appeared to contradict
assurances by top leader Deng Xiaoping that reforms were not
threatened by the current campaign against "bourgeois
liberalisation," or western political ideas.
Earlier this week Deng raised expectations for the session
by saying plans to reform China's political structure would be
unveiled in 1987, diplomats said.
REUTER
|
REBEL AMBUSH KILLS 18 SOLDIERS IN PHILIPPINES
|
Communist rebels killed 18 soldiers on
Mindanao island in the southern Philippines, the army said.
Military officials said about 70 soldiers on foot patrol
were attacked by guerrillas on the border area around Misamis
Occidental and Davao del Sur provinces.
The state-run Philippine News Agency said at least 18
rebels died in the clash, but the military officials could not
confirm the report.
On Tuesday, 19 soldiers were killed in Quezon province in
the northern island of Luzon after land mines blew up an
armoured vehicle and a troop-carrying truck.
REUTER
|
WORLD BANK TEAMS STUDYING PHILIPPINE LOAN REQUESTS
|
Two World Bank review teams are in the
Philippines to assess government requests for funding for an
expanded housing plan and an accelerated land reform program,
bank officials said.
They told Reuters the housing program loan request is for
100 mln to 150 mln dlrs.
The government has said it will ask for another 500 mln dlr
long-term loan from a World Bank-led consultative group of
multilateral and bilateral aid donors to partially fund its
land reform program.
The officials said negotiations will start next month on
another 150 mln dlr loan sought by Manila to carry out reforms
in 14 major state-owned corporations.
On Tuesday, the world bank approved two loans totalling 310
mln dlrs to help the country's economic recovery program.
The bank was also studying Philippine proposals for loans
to finance geothermal and education projects, sources said.
World Bank sources said the bank's lending to the
Philippines since 1957, including the latest loan, totalled 4.3
billion dlrs. The money has been spread out over more than 100
loans and about 1.2 billion dlrs remains undisbursed.
The World Bank sources said the bank cancelled 450 mln dlrs
in loan commitments to the Philippines during the last three
years of President Ferdinand Marcos's rule. Marcos was toppled
by a military-civilian revolt in February 1986.
"The loans were cancelled because the projects slated for
aid were not implemented properly," they said.
The sources said the bulk of this week's loan would be used
to rehabilitate the state-owned Development Bank of the
Philippines (DBP) and the Philippine National Bank (PNB) which
are saddled with seven billion dlrs of non-performing assets.
"At least 300 mln dlrs of previously cancelled loans were
supposed to go to the DBP," the World Bank sources said. "Over
the past three years the bank's disbursement pipeline to the
Philippines almost completely dried up."
In 1986 alone, the two banks paid out 16 billion pesos in
loan repayments, about 59 pct of the government's budget
deficit of 27 billion pesos for the year, they said.
Agreement on the latest loan was reached in principle last
September when President Corazon Aquino visited the U.S. The
sources said the loan was held up because of delays by the
government in submitting essential documents.
The World Bank sources said the request for land reform
funding would be discussed at a meeting of the World Bank-led
consultative group to be held alongside the April 27-29 annual
meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Osaka.
The government has said the land reform plan aims to
distribute 9.7 mln hectares of land to impoverished peasants.
The sources said the Philippine government estimated the
entire program would cost 60 billion pesos. "About 27 billion is
long-term and will cover land transfer costs borne mainly by
landowners," they said. "The landowners will be paid in 10-year
bonds redeemable in ten instalments."
The sources said the bulk of financing would cover
development costs for the land program and help to bridge the
gap between the 10-year spread of payments to landowners and a
proposed 30-year loan repayment period for land buyers.
"If you include interest, the total amount of external
assistance needed annually should not exceed 200 mln dlrs," the
sources said. "That volume of aid does not appear difficult."
They said Japan, the World Bank and the ADB are expected to
provide most of the financing while the Philippines' 12
bilateral aid donors would contribute the rest.
The World Bank sources said lending to the Philippines is
designed to support its balance of payments position while the
government aims for a target of six to seven pct annual gross
national product growth.
"Brazil did not do this homework," one said. "They pushed
ahead with a recovery program without ensuring backing for
their balance of payments position. Manila is being more
cautious and aims at soft borrowings which, it is hoped, will
be outstripped by annual growth rates and eventually result in
the country emerging from debt in five or six years."
Philippine foreign debt is currently 27.8 billion dlrs.
REUTER
|
PHILIPPINE COPPER SMELTER FACES SHIPMENT DELAYS
|
Copper shipments are likely to be
delayed because of power problems at <Philippine Associated
Smelting and Refining Corp> (PASAR), the country's only
smelter, a company official said.
Asked to confirm reports by New York copper trade sources
about PASAR's shipment problems, marketing manager Deogracias
Madrid told Reuters, "They are partly correct. There could be a
probable delay."
Madrid declined to give more details, or production and
export figures, saying the information could lead to
speculation.
PASAR's smelter is in the central province of Leyte.
The New York trade sources said if PASAR's shipments were
delayed, customers might have to turn to the London Metal
Exchange for supply.
"We have a commitment to our customers and I would not like
to comment on that," Madrid said.
A spokeswoman for the Chamber of Mines said Philippine
copper production amounted to 222,644 tonnes in 1986, down
slightly from 226,157 tonnes in 1985. She said production in
the first two months of 1987 totalled 34,550 tonnes, compared
with 36,462 tonnes in the same 1986 period.
REUTER
|
SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN ISSUES 400 MLN MARK BOND
|
The West German federal state of
Schleswig-Holstein is issuing a 400 mln mark domestic bond,
carrying a coupon of six pct and priced at 100.40, lead manager
Landesbank Schleswig-Holstein - Girozentrale said.
The eight-year offer yields 5.94 pct to retail investors at
issue and will go on sale on March 25.
Some 300 mln will be offered for immediate sale, and 100
mln will be retained for market regulation.
The bond matures on April 20, 1995. Listing will be on all
eight West German stock exchanges.
REUTER
|
German M3 rose 2.6 billion marks in February to 1,035.1 billion - Bundesbank
| |
GERMAN M3 RISES 2.6 BILLION MARKS IN FEBRUARY
|
West German M3 money supply rose a
seasonally adjusted 2.6 billion marks in February to 1,035.1
billion, the Bundesbank said.
The rise compares with a revised 14.8 billion mark increase
in January and a 2.2 billion rise in February 1986.
REUTER
|
SAS SAYS PLANS TO BUY 12 MCDONNEL DOUGLAS MD-11s IN DOUBT- OFFICIAL
| |
NON-COMMUNIST STEEL OUTPUT CONTINUES TO FALL
|
Steel output in the major
non-Communist producing countries fell sharply in February,
continuing a long-running trend, International Iron and Steel
Institute figures showed.
Production in the 30 countries which report their figures
to it was 6.9 pct below the February 1986 level at 32.03 mln
tonnes.
Output in the United States fell 18.5 pct to 5.30 mln
tonnes, that in Japan 7.8 pct to 7.27 mln and that in the
European Community 6.5 pct to 9.91 mln.
The figures continue to indicate a switch away from these
traditional major producing countries to the more advanced
developing countries.
Brazilian February output rose 9.2 pct from year-earlier
levels to 1.73 mln tonnes and that in South Korea was up 7.5
pct at 1.17 mln tonnes.
The 30 countries covered by the figures account for about
97 pct of world non-Communist steel production, the Institute
said.
REUTER
|
GUINNESS STARTS COURT ACTION AGAINST SAUNDERS
|
Guinness Plc <GUIN.L> said it has
started court proceedings against former chairman and chief
executive Ernest Saunders and non-executive director Thomas
Ward for recovery of 5.2 mln stg.
The money was paid to Ward via Marketing and Acquisition
Consultants Ltd in Jersey.
Guinness said earlier it would propose a resolution at the
annual meeting in May to remove Saunders and Ward as directors
of the company. Earlier this month, lawyers for Ward told a
Jersey court that Ward saw the payment as his reward for
services in last year's takeover battle for <Distillers Co
Plc>.
Guinness has said that both men breached their fiduciary
duty in authorising the payment.
Saunders resigned from his executive positions at Guinness
in January in the aftermath of a government enquiry into share
dealings during the battle for Distillers but retained his
position on the board.
No spokesman for Guinness was immediately available for
comment on the statement.
REUTER
|
NEW DUTCH ADVANCES TOTAL FOUR BILLION GUILDERS
|
The Dutch Central Bank said it has
accepted bids totalling 4.00 billion guilders at tender this
morning for new five-day special advances at 5.3 pct for the
period March 20 to 25.
Subscriptions to 250 mln guilders were fully met, amounts
above 250 mln at 30 pct.
The new facility replaces old 11-day advances totalling 6.5
billion guilders at the same rate.
REUTER
|
SAS POSTPONES PLANS TO BUY 12 MD-11S
|
SAS <Scandinavian Airline Systems>
said it was postponing a decision on a 10-billion crown order
for 12 McDonnell Douglas <MD N> MD-11 airliners following what
it said was an aggressive counter-bid from Airbus Industrie.
SAS signed a letter of intent for the MD-11s last December,
but a company statement said the decision on whether to harden
this up into a firm order would be linked to the outcome of
negotiations with the United States on deregulating air fares
across the North Atlantic.
The SAS move, said by analysts to be a big blow to
McDonnell Douglas, came following a Copenhagen board meeting of
the airline in which the governments of Sweden, Denmark and
Norway jointly own a 50 pct stake. The remainder is held by
industry.
A company statement said SAS would wait to see the outcome
of the government-to-government negotiations with the United
States, in which the three Scandinavian countries have demanded
greater access to the U.S. Domestic market for SAS in exchange
for deregulating prices across the North Atlantic.
At present SAS is allowed to fly to New York, Chicago, Los
Angeles, Seattle and Anchorage.
SAS gave no details of the Airbus Industrie counter-offer
for its long-range A340, but said it will study the bid
further.
Swissair yesterday confirmed an order for the MD-11 long
haul jets worth 1.2 billion Swiss francs and said it had
preferred the McDonnell Douglas planes over the A340, a project
that has not yet been formally launched, as it met the
airline's requirements better and would be able to enter
service in 1990.
SAS President Jan Carlzon announced the MD-11 order last
December, saying the plane would replace the airline's current
fleet of DC10s. The first of the MD-11s was to be delivered in
1991 for use mainly on its intercontinental routes.
In January, SAS officials said Airbus had made a revised
offer that included larger, more powerful engines and two
versions of the four-engine plane. One would seat 220
passengers and another 260 against the MD-11's 265-seat
capacity.
The offer was part of a drive to secure at least five
airline customers for the new aircraft to enable Airbus
Industrie to launch production. Airbus is expected to decide
whether to go ahead with the project next month.
SAS officials earlier said they did not expect the first
A340 to be delivered before 1992. McDonnell Douglas had given
SAS until March 31 to agree to final terms for the MD-11 deal.
REUTER
|
FINLAND CONSIDERS ABOLISHING PRICE CONTROLS
|
An official proposal that Finland
scrap price controls and replace them with a system aimed at
promoting competition is expected to go to parliament later
this year, officials said.
The proposal handed to the government yesterday calls for
parliament to be empowered to order three-month price freezes
in place of the controls.
It proposes that a new board be set up to ensure large
firms do not abuse their market positions and that monopolies
do not expand beyond their approved sectors.
REUTER
|
U.K. MONEY MARKET OFFERED EARLY ASSISTANCE
|
The Bank of England said it had invited
an early round of bill offers from the discount houses after
forecasting a shortage of around 950 mln stg in the money
market today.
Among the main factors affecting liquidity, bills maturing
in official hands and the take-up of treasury bills will drain
around 572 mln stg while a rise in note circulation wil take
out some 280 mlns stg.
In addition, exchequer transactions and bankers' balances
below target will remove some 85 mln stg and 15 mln stg for the
system respectively.
REUTER
|
MCCARTHY AND STONE GETS 100 MLN STG FACILITY
|
McCarthy and Stone Plc, a public U.K.
Company which owns and operates retirement homes, has signed a
100 mln stg multi-option facility, National Westminster Bank
Plc said as arranger.
The facility incorporate a 70 mln stg committed element
from a group of international banks.
The facility will provide the group with working capital to
meet its planned expansion in the U.K. Over the next three
years.
REUTER
|
Abbey National said it cutting U.K. Mortgage rate by 1.125 pct to 11.25 pct
| |
INDIA DETAILS RAIN/FLOOD DAMAGE TO GRAIN IN 1986
|
Rain and floods in India last year
damaged about 69,000 tonnes of grain intended for human
consumption during storage and transportation, food and civil
supplies minister H. K. L. Bhagat told Parliament.
He did not give comparative figures and said the
government-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI) had not yet
decided whether these grains could be used as cattle feed.
Bhagat said the FCI had a total of 16.43 mln tonnes of food
grains in its warehouses at the end of 1986. It had asked state
governments to build more warehouses to avoid damage to grains.
REUTER
|
TROPICAL FOREST DEATH COULD SPARK NEW DEBT CRISIS
|
The death of the world's tropical rain
forests could trigger a new debt crisis and social and
biological disasters, scientists and ecologists involved with
the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) said.
At stake is the ability of developing nations, including
Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, to service their debts and
the loss of trade worth hundreds of billions of dollars in
important sectors such as agriculture and pharmaceuticals, they
said.
The experts, gathering ahead of an ITTO meeting of
consumers and producers near Tokyo next week, said the problem
is already acute.
The Philippines offers a textbook case of the economic
dangers. "For many third world nations, the loss of the forest
is not just a loss of resources," said Delfin Ganapin, a
Philippine government consultant on environmental impact.
"In the 1960s we had 16 mln hectares of commercial forest,
now we have one mln. We have only around 10 years of profitable
logging left. With a 26 billion dlr debt, the loss of logging
foreign exchange earnings is serious," he said.
About 14 mln Philippine people depend on upland areas that
are now denuded and farmers cannot grow crops.
Government security advisers say that as a direct result,
the most likely source of revolution in the Philippines is in
the upland areas, said Ganapin.
Replanting is uneconomic and replanted tropical hardwoods
have less than a 50 pct chance of survival. There is no known
way to reproduce the wood, or the millions of species within.
"No replanting programme has been successful," said Almy
Hafild from the Indonesian Network for Forest Conservation.
Ganapin said three billion dlrs would be needed in the next
two years alone to save five mln hectares of critically denuded
land in the Philippines.
The experts say that without a major initiative from the
development banks, the vicious circle will continue with
countries cutting more forest to help service short-term debts
at the cost of long-term insolvency.
Yet timber, a five billion dlr a year industry, is not
necessarily the most direct economic product of the forests,
and nations must be educated in how best to "farm" them, said
Peter Kramer, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conservation director.
There is a four billion dlr annual global trade in the end
products of rattan, and Brazil nuts earn Brazil 16 mln dlrs a
year, he said.
U.S. Pharmacologist Norman Farnsworth has calculated that
25 pct of all U.S. Prescriptions owe their active ingredients
to higher plants growing in the forests.
Deforestation would wipe out the chance of further
discoveries and force major corporations to research, develop
and produce man-made substitutes, at a cost which scientists
say is incalculable.
By the year 2000, only 10 developing nations will still be
exporting timber, from 33 currently, and their export earnings
will drop from a 1980 peak of 6.8 billion dlrs to less than two
billion, a World Bank and U.N. Sponsored survey said.
Of the 20.3 billion dlrs advanced by the World Bank,
Inter-American, African and Asian Development Banks in 1980-84,
only 100 mln dlrs went to forestry projects, it said.
WWF statistics show half of the world's tropical forests
have vanished since the 1940s. Of 2,000 mln hectares remaining,
up to 16 mln are destroyed each year by destructive logging
practises and by local farmers.
REUTER
|
JAPAN PLANS MORE DECONTROL ON LARGE BANK DEPOSITS
|
The Finance Ministry plans to further
ease restrictions on large-denomination bank deposits this year
and is studying several deregulation plans, a ministry official
said, without elaborating.
Banking sources told Reuters the ministry plans to lower
the minimum denomination of money market certificates (MMCs) to
10 mln yen from 20 mln, the amount slated to be applied from
April 6. The amount is currently 30 mln yen.
The ministry is also considering shortening the minimum
period of free-interest large-lot time deposits to one month
from the current three months, the sources said.
The Ministry plans to expand the issue period of
certificates of deposits (CDs) to one week to two years from
the current one month to one year, the sources said.
They said banks fear the ministry's plans may induce a
shift of funds from bank to other financial instruments.
One official of a major bank said the planned moves were
unexpected as deregulation on large deposits was previously
expected to have ended with the measures to start in April.
On April 6, the Ministry is scheduled to lower the minimum
time deposit amount to 100 mln yen from the current 300 mln and
cut the maximum MMC deposit period to two years from one.
REUTER
|
BANK OF FINLAND WILL ANNOUNCE NEW MEASURES
|
The Bank of Finland called a news
conference at 1200 GMT to announce new measures for the
"development of the system of monetary control."
A spokesman for the Bank declined to give further details.
Banking sources said they expected the bank to announce it
will actively take part in the interbank market and buy and
sell certificates of deposit.
The state treasury issues government paper with a maturity
of up to one year. The central bank has so far not issued its
own paper, the sources said.
REUTER
|
JAPAN SLIGHTLY REDUCES SUGAR CONSUMPTION ESTIMATE
|
The Agriculture Ministry said it revised
its April-June sugar consumption estimate down to 623,300
tonnes on a refined basis, from 637,800 estimated at the end of
December.
It said the estimate for domestically produced sugar supply
for the same period was revised to 190,400 tonnes from the
earlier estimate of 195,100 tonnes, while imports were revised
to 402,000 tonnes from the earlier 435,800 tonnes.
It did not revise its sugar consumption estimate of 2.53
mln tonnes for the 1986/87 sugar year ending September 30.
The ministry said the estimate for the 1986/87 year's
supply of domestically produced sugar was revised to 881,000
tonnes, from the earlier estimate of 863,000.
The estimate for 1986/87 imports was revised to 1.642 mln
tonnes, from an earlier 1.645 mln tonnes.
REUTER
|
GERMAN VEBA PLACEMENT SAID LIKELY EARLY NEXT WEEK
|
The placement of the German federal
government's 25.6 pct stake in utility Veba AG <VEBG.F> would
probably take place early next week, banking sources said.
Share dealers said speculation had arisen in the early
pre-bourse market that the Veba announcement could come as
early as today. But one banking source, though confirming that
most of the details had been worked out, said the chances of an
announcement today were about nil. He had no price details.
The 10 mln shares on offer are expected to bring a cash
call in Germany for well over two billion marks. The share was
around 253 marks today after a 6.50 drop to 252 yesterday.
REUTER
|
U.K. MONEY MARKET GIVEN 728 MLN STG EARLY HELP
|
The Bank of England said it had provided
the money market with 728 mln stg assistance in response to an
early round of bill offers from the discount houses.
Earlier, the Bank had estimated the shortage in the system
today at 950 mln stg.
The central bank purchased 625 mln stg of bills for resale
to the market on April 7 at rates of interest between 9-15/16
pct and 10 pct.
It also bought 103 mln stg bank bills outright comprising
65 mln stg in band one at 9-7/8 pct and 38 mln stg in band two
at 9-13/16 pct.
REUTER
|
FRENCH FARMERS WORRIED OVER FUTURE OF CAP
|
The French farmers' union, FNSEA, hopes
France will resist European Community (EC) pressures over farm
prices and notably those of the European Commission at coming
ministerial negotiations in Brussels, FNSEA Secretary-General
Luc Guyau said.
He told a press conference the union was concerned about
the future of the EC Common Agricultural Policy.
France must define its position well before negotiating and
not just adopt a short term policy, he said.
The FNSEA, with around 700,000 members, holds its annual
congress next week, when over 500 delegates will debate the
theme of "facing up to the future.
"The period of change we are going through obliges us to
face up to new challenges," Guyau said, referring specifically
to the demographic changes in French agriculture.
"Forty-five per cent of our farmers are over 55 years old
this year," he said.
REUTER
|
ANZ BANK PLANS 100 MLN AUS DLR EURO-CP PROGRAM
|
Australia and New Zealand Banking
Group Ltd <ANZA.S> is planning a 100 mln Australian dlr
Euro-commercial paper program, arranger ANZ Securities Asia Ltd
said.
Under the program, notes in denominations of 100,000 dlrs
will be issued with maturities ranging from seven to 365 days.
The four dealers for the program are ANZ Securities Asia,
Barclays Bank Plc, BT Asia Ltd and Morgan Guaranty Ltd.
ANZ Securities said the program is aimed at investors in
Asia, where there is strong potential for a big market in
short-term Australian dlr paper.
REUTER
|
Feb daily ave unwrought aluminium output 33,900 tonnes, up 400 tonnes, IPAI.
| |
MOODY'S ASSIGNS EUROBOND RATINGS
|
Moody's Investors Service said it
assigned the following ratings to new eurobonds.
AAA ratings were assigned to:
Eastman Kodak Co's 135 mln U.S. Dlrs of 7-1/8 pct euronotes
due 1987.
Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York's 100 mln Canadian
dlrs of 8-1/2 pct receipts for Government of Canada bonds due
1994.
Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG's 100 mln Canadian dlrs of
nine pct guaranteed eurobonds due 1997.
Swedish Export Credit's 220 mln Australian dlrs of 9-1/2
pct dual currency eurobonds due 1992.
Moody's said it also assigned AAA ratings to:
European Coal and Steel Community's 100 mln stg 9-3/8 pct
eurobonds due 1992.
Nordic Investment Bank's 300 mln Danish crown 11-1/4 pct
eurobonds due 1994.
The World Bank's one billion Luxembourg francs of seven pct
eurobonds due 1997.
Credit Foncier's 150 mln European Currency Units (ECUs) of
7-5/8 pct eurobonds due 1994.
Moody's said it also assigned ratings to euroyen bonds,
with AAA ratings assigned to the following:
Societe Generale's 19 billion yen zero coupon notes due
1992.
Export Development Corp's 15 billion yen of 4-1/2 pct
euroyen bonds due 1992.
Exportfinans' 15 billion yen of five pct eurobonds due
1992.
Toronto Dominion Bank's 20 billion yen of 4-5/8 pct euroyen
bonds due 1992.
A AA1 rating was assigned to DNC International Finance AS'
10 billion yen of five pct guaranteed eurobonds due 1994.
Moody's said it assigned a AA2 rating to Toyota Motor
Credit Co's 23 billion yen of 4-1/2 pct euroyen bonds due 1992.
Nissan Motor Co Ltd's 35 billion yen of 5-1/8 pct euroyen
bonds due 1992 gained an A2 rating.
Ford Motor Credit Co's 200 mln marks of 5-3/4 pct eurobonds
due 1992 were assigned an A1 rating.
REUTER
|
STANDARD BANK UNABLE TO MAKE EARNINGS FORECAST
|
Standard Bank Investment Corp Ltd
(SPRJ.J) chairman Henri de Villiers said he could not predict
profits for the bank this year because of South Africa's
continuing political unrest.
De Villiers also warned in the annual report that "failing
prompt and decisive political action, South Africa faces a
future of violent deadlock between different racial and
political groupings."
He said South Africa's future economic prospects are
"clouded by political and social issues and in the absence of
evidence that these are being positively addressed I am unable
to offer an earnings forecast for 1987."
Standard Bank, 39 pct owned by Standard Chartered PLC
<STCH.L>, London, previously reported that 1986 net income
rose by 13.8 pct to 209.0 mln rand.
The bank said its bad debt losses should begin to decline
this year "although it may take some time before they return to
accepted industry norms."
The annual report showed that the bank's charge for bad and
doubtful debts rose in 1986 to 187.6 mln rand from 162.1 mln
rand in the prior year.
The bank said net income of its Standard Bank of South
Africa subsidiary declined 8.2 pct in 1986 to 112.3 mln rand in
a difficult banking environment caused mainly by low credit
demand.
REUTER
|
NON-COMMUNIST FEBRUARY ALUMINIUM OUTPUT UP, IPAI
|
Non-Communist daily average unwrought
aluminium production in February was 33,900 tonnes, up 400
tonnes from a downwardly revised 33,500 tonnes in January and
compared with 32,900 tonnes in February 1986, provisional
figures from the International Primary Aluminium Institute
(IPAI) show.
Total production in February (28 days) was 949,000 tonnes
compared with a downwardly revised 1.038 mln in January (31
days) and 920,000 in February 1986.
The regional breakdown of unwrought aluminium production
was as follows (in thousands of tonnes) the IPAI said.
Feb'87 Jan'87 Feb'86
Africa 45 50 41
North America 354 389 353
Latin America 115 121 98
East Asia 7 9 16
South Asia 72 79 72
Europe 268 293 256
Oceania 88 97 84
REUTER
|
PHILIPS IN MARKETING PACT WITH U.S. FIRM
|
NV Philips
Gloeilampenfabrieken <PGLO.AS.> said it planned to pool
world-wide sales and marketing of electronic test and measuring
equipment with U.S. Firm <John Fluke Mfg Co Inc>.
It said from this autumn Fluke will sell, service and
distribute Philips test and measuring products in North America
and selected markets including China, Hong Kong and Japan.
Philips will cover mainly European markets for Fluke.
The Dutch company said it will buy a minority equity stake
in Fluke and name a board member. Its equity holding will not
exceed 10 pct, Philips said.
The companies will also explore possible new joint ventures
to develop new product lines, Philips said.
It estimated the world-wide market for test and measuring
equipment at six billion dlrs in 1986.
Fluke had 1986 sales of 209 mln dlrs last year and Philips'
turnover on test and measuring gear was of comparable size.
A Philips spokesman said the world leaders in the field
were Hewlett-Packard Co <HWP.AS> and Tekronix Inc <TEK.N>, with
the combined operations of Philips and Fluke third.
REUTER
|
EC APPROVES 25,000 TONNES OF BARLEY EXPORTS
|
The European Community authorised the
export of 25,000 tonnes of barley yesterday, bringing the
cumulative total at weekly tenders since the series started
last June to 3.33 mln tonnes, close to the 3.37 mln under
licence in the same year ago period, traders said.
All bids for wheat were rejected. However, the total to
date of 5.06 mln tonnes is still substantially more than the
3.03 mln under licence a year ago. The 80,000 tonnes of French
maize granted for export moved the total to 135,000 tonnes
since the tender opened in February this year. There were no
facilities for maize in the previous weekly grain export
series.
REUTER
|
U.K. FEB RETAIL PRICES UP 0.4 PCT, BASE REVISED, YEAR-ON-YEAR RISE 3.9 PCT - OFFICIAL
| |
UK AVERAGE GDP RISES PRELIMINARY 2.6 PCT IN 1986, UP 0.7 PCT IN 4TH QTR - OFFICIAL
| |
NO BRAZIL SOLUTION WITHOUT IMF, GERMAN BANKER SAYS
|
A solution to Brazil's debt problems
is unthinkable without the involvement of the International
Monetary Fund, Juergen Sarrazin, management board member of
Dresdner Bank AG responsible for Latin America said.
Sarrazin told the business daily Handelsblatt that Brazil's
interest payments moratorium had cost it the goodwill of many
banks.
"Now there will certainly be no solutions without the IMF,"
he said. "Alternatives which could be imagined before, such as
bringing the IMF in with us in a loose form, are over," he said.
Sarrazin, who through Dresdner represents German banks in
several rescheduling coordinating committees, noted that Brazil
was still prepared to negotiate.
But he said work in the coordinating committees had already
run into difficulties before Brazil's interest moratorium.
Justified calls by debtors for more flexibility from the
banks were blocked because U.S. Regulations made solutions such
as capitalising of interest virtually impossible, he said.
Although many European banks were opposed to the use of
interest capitalisation, "this was an alternative which has to
be brought in," Sarrazin said.
REUTER
|
U.K. AVERAGE GDP RISES 2.6 PCT IN 1986
|
Britain's gross domestic product (GDP)
on the average basis of output, expenditure and income rose by
2.6 pct in 1986 after a 3.4 pct increase a year earlier,
Central Statistical Office (CSO) preliminary figures show.
In the fourth quarter, GDP rose 0.7 pct over the previous
quarter and was up 3.3 pct on the same 1985 quarter.
The average estimate index, seasonally-adjusted and based
1980, was set at 114.3 in the fourth quarter of 1986 against
113.5 in the previous quarter and 110.7 in the final quarter of
1985.
The CSO said the average GDP estimate index for 1986 as a
whole was 113.1, up 2.6 pct from 110.2 for 1985.
On the output measure, GDP rose an upward revised
seasonally adjusted 0.3 pct in the fourth quarter of 1986 to
114.9 on the output index from 114.5 in the previous quarter,
giving a 3.2 pct rise over the fourth 1985 quarter, the CSO
figures show.
On income-based GDP, the index in the fourth quarter rose
by 0.7 pct from the third quarter and was up 3.8 pct on the
year-ago quarter.
The indices stood at 115.3, 114.4 and 111.0 respectively.
Expenditure-based GDP rose 1.2 pct in the fourth quarter of
1986 from the third quarter and was up 2.9 pct from the same
1985 quarter.
The CSO set the expenditure index at 112.9 from 111.6 in
the third quarter of 1986 and 109.8 in the final 1985 quarter.
The year-on-year rise for expenditure GDP was 2.3 pct with
the expenditure index for the whole of 1986 set at 111.9
against 109.4 a year earlier.
For income GDP, the year-on-year rise was 2.6 pct against
against three pct a year earlier. The ouptut GDP measure rose
2.8 pct year-on-year, down from 3.8 pct in 1985.
The government usually considers the output measure the
most reliable way of measuring short-term GDP changes.
It is based on output data for production industry and
partial information for the rest of the economy.
The government had forecast that average measure GDP would
rise 2.5 pct in calendar 1986 after 3.3 pct in 1985. The budget
unveiled on Tuesday foresaw GDP growth in 1987 of three pct.
The GDP deflator, based on expenditure at market prices,
rose 1.2 pct in the fourth quarter from the third, to give a
2.4 pct rise over fourth quarter 1985. Year-on-year, the
deflator rose 3.7 pct.
REUTER
|
U.K. RETAIL PRICES RISE 0.4 PCT IN FEBRUARY
|
The Retail Price Index (RPI), Britain's
measure of inflation, rose 0.4 pct in February on a revised
basis, to give a year-on-year rise of 3.9 pct, the Employment
Department said.
In January, the index rose 0.4 pct for a 3.9 pct
year-on-year rise on both the previous base and the new index.
The February RPI was set at 100.4, base January 1987. In
February 1986, the RPI rose 0.4 pct, giving a 5.1 pct
year-on-year increase on the old basis.
The inflation data compares with market forecasts for a
rise of 0.4 - 0.5 pct in February and a yearly rise of about
four pct, economists said.
The Employment Department said the rise in the index
between January and February was mainly the result of higher
prices for petrol, fresh vegetables, cars and car maintenance.
REUTER
|
DANISH WHOLESALE PRICES FALL 0.5 PCT IN FEBRUARY
|
Denmark's wholesale price index fell
0.5 pct in February, giving a year-on-year fall of 4.9 pct, the
National Statistics Office said.
The index, base 1980, stood at 135 in February, a fall of
one point compared to January, against 142 in February 1986.
REUTER
|
SWISS FINANCE MINISTRY CALLS TWO SEASONED BONDS
|
The Swiss Finance Ministry said it was
calling two bond issues of a total 550 mln Swiss francs as part
of its effort to retire outstanding high-interest debt.
The calls, to be made effective June 30 and September 30,
affected respectively the 7-1/4 pct bond of 1975 for 250 mln
francs and the 6-1/2 pct bond of the same year for 300 mln.
A spokesman said the ministry had not yet decided whether
to convert the issues into new bonds, but it had outlined plans
for two new bonds, each of 250 mln francs. The strong state of
government finances might permit it not to issue one or both of
them, he said.
REUTER
|
BANK OF SPAIN SUSPENDS ASSISTANCE, DRAINS FUNDS
|
The Bank of Spain suspended its daily
money market assistance and offered to drain funds with three-
and seven-day repurchase agreements at 12-1/2 pct, money market
sources said.
The sources said the measures were a further attempt to
rein in money supply and were likely to force some institutions
to scramble for funds before the 10-day accounting period for
reserve requirements closes on Monday.
The bank, which raised its rate for ordinary overnight
assistance to 13-3/4 from 13-1/2 pct on Wednesday, opened its
special borrowing facility for overnight funds at 14-1/2 pct.
Money market sources said institutions in need of funds
were likely to have to return to the bank tomorrow for further
assistance.
The bank rarely invites applications for ordinary
assistance on a Saturday and the sources said it was more
likely to open its special borrowing facility again.
REUTER
|
U.K. BUILDING SOCIETY RECEIPTSRISE IN FEBRUARY
|
U.K building society net receipts in
February were 472 mln stg, slightly up on January's 456 mln but
well below the 793 mln stg of February 1986, the Building
Societies' Association (BSA) said.
BSA Secretary-General Mark Boleat noted that net receipts
were below 500 mln stg for the third month out of the last
four.
"This was obviously a disappointing performance, especially
in view of the rapid growth of mortgage commitments, to over
2.5 billion stg," he said.
The BSA said receipts were depressed by the British Airways
flotation, despite the later return of oversubscribed funds.
Total building society receipts in February were 6.4
billion stg against withdrawals of 5.9 billion.
Mortgage lending to home buyers during the month fell
slightly to 2.16 billion stg from 2.18 billion stg in January,
the BSA said. Mortgage lending has fallen steadily since last
July's peak of 3.9 billion stg.
Net new mortgage commitments however rose to 2.5 billion
stg from January's 1.9 billion, bringing the total commitments
outstanding to 6.9 billion after January's 6.6 billion stg.
Wholesale funding rose to 292 mln stg after January's 29
mln, but was still below each of the last six 1986 months.
REUTER
|
BRAZIL SEEN AS VANGUARD FOR CHANGING DEBT STRATEGY
|
Brazil's hard-line debt stance, though
meeting creditor resistance, is boosting political initiatives
in Latin America aimed at broadening the global strategy,
regional debt officials and economic analysts say.
"Now more than ever it is clear that Latin America cannot
pay, under present conditions, without sacrificing growth,"
Peruvian President Alan Garcia said, referring to Brazil.
And, as debtors and creditors prepare for their annual
meeting at the Inter-American Development Bank in Miami next
week, the region's debt crisis is clearly coming to a head.
Around 200 billion dlrs in commercial bank debt have been
rescheduled since 1983, with interest rate margins now below
one pct, multi-year accords a norm and no financial crash in
sight, but a lasting solution seems no nearer.
Virtually all Latin American leaders backed Brazil's
suspension of interest payments on 68 billion dlrs of private
bank debt last month, though prospects of a chain default are
still remote.
Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and others rejected such action
and Mexican finance minister Gustavo Petricioli merely said,
"Brazil is having problems we are sure will be temporary."
But Brazil's action has had an impact on other debt
negotiations, speeding agreement for Chile and Venezuela last
month and influencing current talks with Argentina.
Pressure for new solutions has built up on several fronts,
with the Philippines joining Brazil in seeking interest relief
and Ecuador announcing force majeure on debt payments following
a serious earthquake.
Private banks are being increasingly urged to renew lending
and accept innovative repayment schemes, not only by debtors
but also by official agencies which have stepped up their own
credit flows as part of the U.S.-inspired plan.
One Latin American debt official said he saw the Brazil and
Ecuadorean announcements as spurring moves by other debtors to
link debt service payments to macroeconomic indicators such as
export earnings, GDP or raw materials prices.
Despite this, debtor countries continue to accept the
case-by-case approach, and Cuba's call for a joint negotiating
front is not being promoted by Brazil or even defended by Peru,
the region's flag-bearer in unilateral payment decisions.
"Each nation must negotiate its debt independently,
according to its own needs," Brazilian foreign minister Ramiro
de Abreu Sodre said in Caracas at the weekend.
Venezuela's rapid agreement with its creditors, soon after
Brazil's move, had been seen by the political opposition as a
betrayal of debtor solidarity, but de Abreu praised the
Venezuelan negotiators for achieving a favourable deal.
Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica and others are also pursuing
normal negotiations with creditor banks, while at the same time
pressing hard for better terms, particularly lower interest
rate spreads. Latin American officials say that while the debt
should be negotiated case-by-case, their governments are
promoting a general framework for talks based on growth and
development priorities, lower interest payments and new
financing.
"The Brazilian and Ecuadorean experience shows orthodox
solutions to debt cases don't work," said a senior Peruvian
government official responsible for debt affairs.
He saw a growing likelihood that other countries would
follow Peru's action in setting a 10 pct debt payment limit in
the face of trade and other factors beyond debtors' control
such as minimal bank lending.
These factors have contributed to a 130 billion dlr net
outflow from Latin America in the last five years, and
Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson Funaro says Brazil alone paid
back 45 billion dlrs in this time and received just 11 billion
in loans.
Latin American debtors feel they have complied with their
side of the bargain, slashing public spending, devaluing
currencies, cutting inflation, privatizing state enterprises
and introducing debt equity schemes.
Brazil, as the region's biggest debtor and its most
diversified economy, has now apparently adopted the principle
that a tough position with its creditors will avoid a more
serious crisis later on.
"We are negotiating so that the debt question should not be
one of continuous crisis," Funaro told a conference in Rio de
Janeiro this week.
billion dlr debt burden this year are slim, with coffee prices
plunging, oil prices up but still well below 1985 levels and
interest rates beginning to rise.
Mexico expects one to two pct growth instead of the two to
three pct projected earlier, and inflation near 80 pct after
105 pct last year.
Brazilian officials expect growth of only two pct after
eight pct last year and a 30 pct drop in the projected trade
surplus, while independent estimates put inflation at 200 pct.
Political and economic analysts in Brazil believe the
payment suspension will give new impetus to tackling the
regional crisis though they expect protracted negotiations, a
view echoed by senior international bank officials.
Some banks, including Citibank, Morgan Guaranty and Bank of
America are already preparing to downgrade their Brazil loans.
Brazil's refusal to accept an IMF program, a condition set
by many banks for new lending, meanwhile reflects the view of
most Latin American governments that equate the Fund with
recession. But Brazil and Venezuela are the only countries in
the region to have rescheduled debt without an IMF program.
REUTER
|
CANADA CONSUMER PRICE INDEX ROSE 0.4 PCT IN FEBRUARY, STATISTICS CANADA SAID
| |
CANADA FEBRUARY CONSUMER PRICES UP 0.4 PCT
|
The Canadian consumer price index rose
0.4 pct in February, to 135.8, base 1981, compared with a 0.2
pct rise in January and a 0.4 pct rise in February last year,
Statistics Canada said.
The February year-one year rise was 4.0 pct compared with a
3.9 pct rise in January.R
Reuter
|
BOLIVIAN MINERS CALL GENERAL STRIKE
|
About 9,000 miners employed by the
state corporation, Comibol, declared a general strike as from
midnight (0400 gmt) to press for higher salaries, a statement
by the federation for Bolivian mine workers said.
It said the strike was called to defend the nationalised
mining industry. The miners were willing to negotiate with the
government of President Victor Paz Estenssoro, but only if it
showed an intention to meet the strikers' demands.
The government said the strike was designed to cause it
embarrassment during the four-day visit of West German
President Richard Von Weizsaecker, which starts on Friday.
The miners statement said police had violently evicted
Comibol office workers in the city of Oruro after they began a
hunger strike yesterday.
The government has sacked about 20,000 miners from its
deficit-ridden corporation since the collapse in the
international price of tin. The lay-offs represent about
two-thirds of the original workforce.
REUTER
|
KLM EXPANDS TALKS WITH BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH
|
KLM Royal Dutch Airways <KLM.AS> said
it agreed to take full control of a partially owned Dutch-based
parcel delivery service and will offer a minority stake in it
to British and Commonwealth Shipping Plc <BCOM.L>
KLM, seeking to strengthen its market position in the fast
growing door-to-door delivery market, said it agreed with Dutch
retailer Vendex International <VENN.AS> to take over Vendex's
50-pct in their jointly-owned courier, <XP System VOF>.
Ownership of XP will now be brought into the talks started
by KLM last week with British and Commonwealth for a one-third
stake in the latter's <IML Air Services Group Ltd> courier.
When announcing the negotiations with British and
Commonwealth last week, KLM said buying a minority stake in IML
could involve a convertible loan issue.
A KLM spokeswoman said the Dutch flag carrier would now
offer a minority stake in XP to British and Commonwealth in the
negotiations on IML, but declined to elaborate on financial
aspects of the talks.
She said KLM would like the two courier services to
cooperate in future and did not exclude a future merger between
them to combine IML's strong world-wide network with XP's
mainly European activities.
XP System is based in the southern Dutch airport of
Maastricht and has an annual turnover of 100 mln guilders.
KLM, which is also negotiating with British and
Commonwealth for a 15-pct stake in the latter's regional
airline <Air U.K. Ltd>, says door-to-door delivery courier
services are seeing substantially faster growth than
traditional cargo activities.
REUTER
|
REBEL AMBUSH KILLS 18 SOLDIERS IN PHILIPPINES
|
Communist rebels killed 18 soldiers on
Mindanao island in the southern Philippines, the army said.
Military officials said about 70 soldiers on foot patrol
were attacked by guerrillas on the border area around Misamis
Occidental and Davao del Sur provinces.
The state-run Philippine News Agency said at least 18
rebels died in the clash, but the military officials could not
confirm the report.
On Tuesday, 19 soldiers were killed in Quezon province in
the northern island of Luzon after land mines blew up an
armoured vehicle and a troop-carrying truck.
REUTER
|
WORLD BANK TEAMS STUDYING PHILIPPINE LOAN REQUESTS
|
Two World Bank review teams are in the
Philippines to assess government requests for funding for an
expanded housing plan and an accelerated land reform program,
bank officials said.
They told Reuters the housing program loan request is for
100 mln to 150 mln dlrs.
The government has said it will ask for another 500 mln dlr
long-term loan from a World Bank-led consultative group of
multilateral and bilateral aid donors to partially fund its
land reform program.
The officials said negotiations will start next month on
another 150 mln dlr loan sought by Manila to carry out reforms
in 14 major state-owned corporations.
On Tuesday, the world bank approved two loans totalling 310
mln dlrs to help the country's economic recovery program.
The bank was also studying Philippine proposals for loans
to finance geothermal and education projects, sources said.
World Bank sources said the bank's lending to the
Philippines since 1957, including the latest loan, totalled 4.3
billion dlrs. The money has been spread out over more than 100
loans and about 1.2 billion dlrs remains undisbursed.
The World Bank sources said the bank cancelled 450 mln dlrs
in loan commitments to the Philippines during the last three
years of President Ferdinand Marcos's rule. Marcos was toppled
by a military-civilian revolt in February 1986.
"The loans were cancelled because the projects slated for
aid were not implemented properly," they said.
The sources said the bulk of this week's loan would be used
to rehabilitate the state-owned Development Bank of the
Philippines (DBP) and the Philippine National Bank (PNB) which
are saddled with seven billion dlrs of non-performing assets.
Reuter
|
RAINBOW SAYS BRIERLEY UPSETTING PROGRESSIVE MERGER
|
<Rainbow Corp Ltd> said <Brierley
Investments Ltd> (BIL) is trying to disrupt Rainbow's planned
merger with <Progressive Enterprises Ltd>.
Rainbow chairman Allan Hawkins said in a statement, "In our
opinion BIL have deliberately tried to create anomalies in the
market prices of Rainbow and Progressive shares since the
merger was announced."
The merger, announced in February, involves the formation
of a new company, <Astral Pacific Corp Ltd>, which Rainbow and
Progressive shareholders will enter into on a one-for-one share
basis. Both boards have approved the merger.
BIL has said it was the mystery bidder behind a recent
stand in the market for three mln Progressive shares.
"We simply regard Progressive Enterprises shares to be worth
approximately twice as much as Rainbow shares and do not think
the merger, as proposed, is soundly based," BIL chief executive
Paul Collins said in an interview in the weekly National
Business Review newspaper published today.
Collins was not immediately available to respond directly
to Hawkins' statement.
Hawkins said the merger has been assessed by independent
consultants and declared fair in all respects, with benefits to
all shareholders.
"We are not going to stand by while other parties distort
the picture for their own strategic purposes and distract the
market away from the real benefits of the merger," he said.
"In our opinion, BIL's actions are clearly not designed to
be in the long term interests of either Progressive or Rainbow
shareholders," Hawkins said.
Reuter
|
U.K. UNIT TRUSTS REPORT STRONG RISE IN FEBRUARY
|
Funds managed by U.K. Unit trusts rose
by 2.3 billion stg in February to stand at a record 37.2
billion, the Unit Trust Association said.
By comparison, funds under management in January totalled
34.9 billion stg and in February 1986, 22.9 billion.
The association statement said gross sales for February
rose 1.01 billion stg, the second consecutive month sales
increased over a billion stg. Gross sales in January totalled
1.14 billion and 560.7 mln in February 1986.
The number of unit holder accounts rose by 93,000 to
3,594,000, a rise of 36 pct during the last 12 months.
REUTER
|
INDIAN STATE FIRM SIGNS 169.1 MLN MARK LOAN PACT
|
India's state-owned National Thermal
Power Corp said it has signed an agreement to borrow 169.1 mln
marks at a fixed annual 6.48 pct interest for 15 years and
eight months, an NTPC official said.
The agreement signed last Saturday in Hong Kong with a
syndicate of eight Indian and foreign banks including State
Bank of India (London), Bankers Trust Co (Hong Kong) and
Grindlays Bank Plc (London) fixes the draw-down period at 68
months, the official said.
Repayments are in 20 half-yearly instalments starting from
the 68th month.
REUTER
|
U.K. MONEY MARKET GIVEN FURTHER 31 MLN STG HELP
|
The Bank of England said it gave the
money market another 31 mln stg in assistance in the morning
session.
This brings the Bank's total help today to 759 mln stg and
compares with its estimate of a 1.05 billion stg money market
shortage which it earlier revised up from 950 mln stg.
The central bank bought 31 mln stg of bank bills outright
in band two at 9-13/16 pct.
REUTER
|
TAIWAN PLANS MISSION TO CLOSE TRADE GAP WITH U.S.
|
Taiwan's leading industrial organisation
said it will send its first buying mission to the U.S. Later
this year in an effort to reduce the country's trade surplus
with Washington.
A spokesman for the Chinese National Federation of
Industries told Reuters the mission was part of a broader plan
to switch large purchases to the U.S. From Japan.
The Federation groups all of Taiwan's major industrial
associations. Last year its members purchased about 4.5 billion
U.S. Dlrs worth of industrial products from Japan and about 1.8
billion from the U.S.
The spokesman said Federation members were now discussing
the volume of business they could transfer to America.
He said they had drawn up a list of about 80 industrial
products they would be shopping for in the U.S. During the
buying mission in September, but he could give no figure on how
much would be spent.
A Board of Foreign Trade official told Reuters the
government would send two buying missions to America between
June and July this year and might send others later.
Taiwan's trade surplus with the U.S. Rose to a record 13.6
billion dlrs last year from 10.2 billion in 1985.
REUTER
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.