ROCKEFELLER SAYS BRAZIL SOLUTION WILL BE FOUND
David Rockefeller, chairman of the
international advisory committee of Chase Manhattan Bank NA,
said an accommodation would be found between Brazil and its
commercial bank creditors to solve the problem of the nation's
recent interest payment halt.
    "I think one will find that the banking community, the
Brazilian government and the international banking authorities
will be talking for the next several weeks and I am very
hopeful that we would find an accommodation." Rockefeller told
bankers at a luncheon.
    Brazil announced on February 20 that it was suspending
interest repayments on about 68 billion dlrs of private sector
debt owed to commercial banks.
    Rockefeller said the recent tour by Brazilian Finance
Minister Dilson Funaro of major industrial nations was a sign
that Brazil wanted to be cooperative. But it was notable that
Funaro did not meet with the creditors immediately affected,
the commercial bankers, he added.
    Brazil's moratorium on commercial debt becomes critical by
end-May, when payments would be 90 days overdue, obliging U.S.
Regulators to downgrade Brazilian debt, financial sources said.
    This would require banks in turn to cease accruing interest
and set aside expensive loan loss reserves.
    Rockefeller reminded bankers of the depth of concern over
Latin American debt at the Toronto World Bank/International
Monetary Fund meeting in 1982, and said an accord would be
reached in the current circumstances just as it had been then.
    "(Brazilian authorities) have no more interest in seeing
their credit sources cut off then we have in seeing their
obligations stop," he added.
 REUTER
