LAWSON EXPECTS INTEREST RATE FALL SOON
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel
Lawson said he expected British interest rates to fall soon in
response to his fiscal 1987/88 budget, but he did not say by
how much.
    "I would be very surprised if there is not a very early
further fall in interest rates," Lawson said in a radio
interview.
    Analysts said they foresaw U.K. Base rates falling as early
as today by as much as one full percentage point after Lawson's
announcement yesterday that the public sector borrowing
requirement in fiscal 1987/88 and 1988/89 was to fall to 1.0
pct of GDP, or some four billion stg.
    British banks' base lending rates fell a half percentage
point on March 9 to the current 10.5 pct.
 REUTER
