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To: goldsnow who wrote (9284)	4/3/1998 9:33:00 PM
From: robnhood	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116776

goldsnow, I heard a rumour at work today that the U.S was considering a loan to Japan of 100 billion. Struck me as a Peter and Paul story. BWDIK russell

To: goldsnow who wrote (9284)	4/4/1998 1:47:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116776

FOCUS-Japan fends off criticism on economic policy 12:06 p.m. Apr 04, 1998 Eastern By Swaha Pattanaik LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto fought on Saturday to fend off mounting international pressure on his government to revive Japan's moribund economy. Calls for Japan to act as the engine for growth in Asia are coming from other leading industrial nations, including the United States, as well as Asian members of the Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) which gathered this week in London. ''Considering the Asian issue as a whole, it is not possible for Japan to support this by itself,'' Hashimoto said after the meeting of the 15 European Union and 10 Asian countries which make up ASEM. ''We realise that a recovery in Japan's economy will obviously be a plus for other (Asian) nations, but there are times when people say Japan's economy has more of an impact than it actually does.'' He was speaking a day after U.S. President Bill Clinton urged Japan to break through entrenched bureaucratic resistance and take bold action on its economy because its future growth was the key to stability in the region. In Europe, German Economics Minister Guenter Rexrodt said in a newspaper interview to be published on Sunday that Japan was not moving fast enough to boost its economy in the wake of Asia's financial crisis. These remarks chimed with the assessment made by U.S. ratings agency Moody's Investors Service which on Friday lowered the outlook for Japanese sovereign debt to negative from stable, but did not downgrade them. Japan's regional partners have not been as forthright but have nevertheless expressed concern about the situation if Japan's economy and its markets weakened further. Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said on Saturday it was important for Japan's forthcoming stimulus measures to stem the weakness of the yen, which slumped to six-and-a-half-year lows against the dollar on Friday. ''The recovery of Japan is important because Japan is a huge market,'' he said. ''If Japan does not regrow, the yen will remain weak and it will be that much more difficult for (Asian) currencies to strengthen.'' He said he was reserving judgment before Hashimoto proposed economic stimulus measures to the Japanese parliament in two weeks' time. ''If (the yen) still weakens (after the proposals), we will have a problem,'' Goh said. International concern about Japan's economic troubles intensified on Thursday after the chairman of electronics giant Sony Corp said the Japanese economy was on the verge of collapse. While other Asian leaders at ASEM did not echo this startling forecast, they were in no doubts about the implications of a slump in Japan. ''Japan is not in danger of collapsing at the moment but obviously it is not as strong as it used to be,'' Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Saturday. ''If Japan collapses it would have a damaging impact on Asian countries.'' Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.