U.S. TREASURY'S BAKER SAYS BANK LOANS TOO SLOW
Treasury Secretary James Baker,
while defending the progress of his 1985 debt initiative,
conceded that lending by commercial banks to developing
countries has not gone as fast as the administration would have
liked.
    In testimony before a House Appropriations subcommittee,
Baker said, however, "I think it is wrong to say that
(commercial bank lending) has not occured in a meaningful way."
    He added though that it has not "materialized as fast as we
would have liked."
    The Treasury secretary also said that it would be
politically wrong for the United States or other countries to
guarantee loans made by commercial banks to the developing
country debtors because that would be "rightly perceived as a
bank bailout."
    Baker also said that it would be impractical for
governments to mandate bank lending to the third world since
this would have the eventual impact of turning commercial banks
away from making all loans to the region.
 Reuter
