BELGIAN PUBLIC DEBT RISES IN APRIL
Belgium's public debt rose in April by a
nominal 38.5 billion francs to 5,719.4 billion francs. This
follows a rise of 89.8 billion in March and a rise of 11.2
billion in April 1986, Finance Minister Mark Eyskens said.
    He said in his monthly statement that after taking account
of foreign exchange variations and other factors the figure
corresponding to the government's net financing requirement in
April was 34.9 billion francs against 24 billion in April 1986.
    In the first four months of this year public debt rose
301.1 billion francs against 269.7 billion in the same period
of 1986, the statement said.
    Between January and April the figure corresponding to the
net financing requirement was 286.3 billion francs compared
with 293.1 billion in the same period in 1986.
    The government has started an austerity programme designed
to cut spending this year by 195 billion francs and to cut the
net financing requirement to below 420 billion francs compared
with 561 billion in 1986.
 REUTER
