IMF says Latam policies good, but 98 growth slowed
sf note: Anyone believe a guy named "Loser" in this market? Gimme a break here, will ya, get ridda the guy?
Reuters, Thursday, September 10, 1998 at 15:12
WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Latin American countries
are taking the correct steps to deal with global market
turmoil, but the storm will hurt the region's growth this year
and next, the IMF's top official for the region said on
Thursday.
International Monetary Fund Western Hemisphere director
Claudio Loser said he expected volatility, set off by Russia's
debt default, to continue in all markets for the next month or
two.
"I'm convinced that the policies the countries are pursuing
are the right ones, that the fundamentals are the right ones
and that the attacks that we see are not warranted given what
the countries are doing," Loser told Reuters in an interview.
Loser said Latin America growth will be somewhat under 3
percent this year and probably next year too.
In April the IMF had already cut its growth projection for
Latin America to 3.4 percent from 5.0 percent due to the Asian
crisis. It originally estimated 1999 growth at 4.3 percent.
The IMF still expects Brazil to grow about 1.5 percent this
year as forecast. Loser said Brazil's current account was high,
but was being reduced with the government's monetary and fiscal
measures, and income from privatizations had helped.
"The reserves have declined, but they remain high, and I
don't think financing should be a problem for Brazil this
year," Loser said.
Venezuela has worked hard to contain spending and was
depreciating its currency, while reserves in the oil-producing
nation remain high, the IMF official said.
He added, however: "There are questions about the level of
the exchange rate, but I think that with the notion they have
set in place of accelerating the depreciation over the last
several weeks they can take care of the problem."
Loser said Venezuela must still continue to take strong
monetary and fiscal action.
fax +1 202 898-8383, washington.economic.newsroom@reuters.com))
Copyright 1998, Reuters News Service |
