BELGIAN PUBLIC DEBT RISES IN FEBRUARY
Belgian public debt rose a nominal
89.5 billion francs in February to 5,591.1 billion francs, and
compared with 5,074.2 billion in February 1986, the finance
ministry said in its monthly statement.
    It said after taking into account operations with the
International Monetary Fund and foreign exchange fluctuations,
the figure corresponding to the government's net financing
requirement in February was 86.0 billion francs.
    This is below the February 1986 figure of 91.1 billion
francs.
    However in the first two 1987 months, the amount
corresponding to the net financing requirement was 184.2
billion francs against 183.9 billion in the same period of
1986, the Ministry said.
    The Belgian government is aiming to cut the financing
requirement for the whole of 1987 to around 420 billion francs
from 561 billion last year through a major spending cuts
program.
 REUTER
