ARGENTINA SAYS COULD FOLLOW BRAZILIAN DEBT MOVE
Central Bank President Jose Luis
Machinea said Argentina could adopt the same posture as Brazil
and suspend payments on its foreign debt if it failed to meet
creditor bank demands.
    "If Argentina had the same difficulties in being unable to
refinance (its debt) under the desired (creditor) conditions,
that (Brasil's) is a path to take," Machinea said.
    Brasil last month suspended payments on a large part of its
109-billion dlr debt, the highest in the developing world.
    Machinea said Brasil did not suspend payments because it
wanted to but because it lacked reserves.
    Argentina has since last month been negotiating a 2.15
billion dlr loan with the steering committee for its
international creditor banks to meet 1987 growth targets.
    But Machinea said the talks were difficult and Argentina
wanted to conclude them as soon as possible.
    "What the (creditor) banks are demanding is not the same as
what Argentina is prepared to concede," Machinea said.
    Argentina has a global foreign debt of 50 billion dlrs. Its
debt with private banks is about 30 billion dlrs.
 Reuter
