G-7 TO REVIEW PARIS ACCORD IN WASHINGTON - LAWSON
The Group of Seven industrialised
countries will make use of next week's International Monetary
Fund meetings in Washington to evaluate the Paris accord on
currency stabilisation, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
Lawson told reporters.
    "On Tuesday I shall be going to Washington for meetings of
the (IMF) Interim Committee and Development Committee, and we
shall of course be having a meeting of the G-7," Lawson said.
    "And on the G-7, although there is no formal agenda, I would
imagine that the first thing we do would be to review how the
Paris accord has gone since it was agreed in February."
    Lawson said G-7 finance ministers will be reviewing
medium-term economic objectives and projections involving
domestic and external variables. Also examined will be
performance indicators for each country.
    The Paris accord set objectives for such sectors as growth,
inflation, current account and trade balances, budget
performances, monetary conditions and exchange rates.
    Lawson said "At both the G-7 and the Interim Committee we
will undoubtedly be discussing the debt problem. Clearly the
debt problem is still with us, and still with us in quite a big
way."
    "In many ways the problems of the big debtor countries, and
indeed the poorest countries, are every bit as acute as they
were when they began. It will be with us for a very long time."
    Lawson said he knew of no new debt initiative which might
be presented and discussed next week in Washington. "We've got
to go on a case-by-case basis," Lawson said.  Possibilities for
a coordinated approach to the problem would be something he
would raise within the IMF, Lawson said.
    He noted the rise this week in U.S. Short-term interest
rates, and said that a significant rise in borrowing costs
would make the debt problem more acute.
    Special attention would go to Brazil next week, but Lawson
added, "I do not expect anything to come to a head on that."
    Lawson said he told Brazilian Finance Minister Dilson
Funaro here in February that Britain would not intervene and
press British commercial banks into giving Brazil easier
borrowing conditions. "I told him it was a matter for the banks,
not governments," Lawson said.
    The IMF Interim Committee is to meet formally in Washington
next Thursday, while the Development Committee was set to
convene on Friday, Treasury officials said.
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