FUNARO REJECTS UK SUGGESTION OF IMF BRAZIL PLAN
Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson Funaro
flatly rejected a U.K. Suggestion that his country seek
International Monetary Fund help in order to facilitate debt
negotiations with commercial creditor banks.
    Talking to reporters, Funaro said this attitude would not
help resolve the crisis started when Brazil suspended
indefenitely interest payments on 68 billion dlrs in external
debt on February 20.
    Funaro was in Britain on the first leg of a tour of
European capitals to explain the motives of the Brazilian debt
moratorium and to seek support for intiatives to improve
capital flows between developed countries and third world
debtor nations.
   Talking before his departure for Paris, he said there could
be no question of Brazil adopting another IMF austerity plan
after a similar package four years ago "put Brazil in a very big
recession."
    "We had an IMF program - it simply meant export more and
import less. We are not going to go the IMF," he said.
    Funaro was reactnng to a British statement following his
talks with Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, saying the
U.K. Government had no part to play in what it viewed as a
problem between Brazil and its commercial creditor banks.
    Britain also believed an IMF program would help along
negotiations between Brazil and the commercial banks, the
statement, which banking sources interpreted as an outright
rebuttal of all Brazilian demands, said.
    "That was not my impression of the meeting," Funaro said; "But
if the (British) answer is more or less like this, then
that means nothing is helping to find a solution."
    Funaro stressed that his talks in Washington last week and
in Europe this week were aimed at gaining official support to
unblock lending from official credit agencies, rather than to
deal with Brazils ties with commercial banks.
    "Since 1982, all official agencies have been closed to my
country," he said.
    He said Lawson had made no commitments to support Brazil's
efforts. Lawson would officially state his position when the
two meet again next month for the IMF and World Bank spring
meetings in Washington, Funaro said.
    Stressing there was no binding time schedule for Brazil's
debt problem to be resolved, Funaro said Brazil had not come to
Europe with specific proposals to overcome the present crisis.
    "We didn't come here to make a cash-flow programme," he said,
"We will have meetings at the IMF next month - let's see what
happens."
    Neither did Brazil plan a major overhaul of current
domestic economic policies, which Funaro said would likely lead
to a five pct economic growth this year.
    "Over the past five years we paid back 45 billion dlrs and
received 11 billion ... This is a very big effort," he said.
"What we have to offer is our cooperation."
 Reuter
