LATIN AMERICA SEEKS NEW APPROACH TO DEBT
The 25-nation Latin American Economic
System (SELA) has presented a document calling for a new
strategy to cope with Latin America's crushing debt and
faltering growth.
    SELA presented the document to a week-long conference of
latin american financial and economic experts, meeting to lay
the groundwork for this year's annual meeting of the united
nations conference on trade and development (unctad).
    SELA called for new efforts to break "the vicious circle of
debt, stagnation and productive retrogression the region has
been immersed in since the beginning of the decade."
    The alterantives to existing approaches for dealing with
the region's crushing foreign debt must include greater
concessions from creditors, according to sela.
    Radical concessions such as debt writedowns and schemes to
tie payments to real income must all be considered, the sela
document stresses.
    It notes that other favorable strategies include foreign
investment/debt equity swaps, already successfully experimented
with in some countries.
    Other policies recommended include more realistic exhange
rates and more producive capital investment programs.
    The sela document is expected to be approved by delegates
from all 26 latin american and caribbean nations meeting here
until friday.
    It will be submitted again for approval by developing
nations belonging to the so-called group of 77 scheduled to
meet next month in havana, cuba.
    At the havana meeting delegates from latin america, asia
and africa will attempt to hammer out a common position for
presentation at unctad's annal meeting next july in geneva.
 Reuter
