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• Deputy Finance Ministers from the Group of 10 leading western industrialised countries met here to discuss the world debt crisis, trade imbalances and currency stability today following last month's Paris monetary accord, sources close to the talks said. The officials met at the offices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss broad aspects of world monetary policy in preparation for the IMF's interim committee meeting in Washington in April. The talks were the first high-level international review of the monetary situation since the accord last month reached by the U.S., West Germany, France, Britain, Japan and Canada to stabilise world currency markets at around present levels following the 40 pct slide in the dollar since mid-1985. Other countries represented at today's talks were Italy, which refused to attend last month's meeting on the grounds that it was being excluded from the real discussions, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Many of the officials had met earlier today and yesterday within the framework of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to review the slow progress being made in cutting the record 170 billion dlr U.S. Trade deficit and persuading West Germany and Japan to open their economies to more foreign imports. ReuterCopy
• Oper shr 69 cts vs 83 cts Oper net 35.9 mln vs 42.4 mln Revs 798.9 mln vs 659.2 mln Avg shrs 52.0 mln vs 50.9 mln Nine mths Oper shr 2.38 dlrs vs 2.75 dlrs Oper net 123.3 mln vs 135.6 mln Revs 2.31 billion vs 1.86 billion Avg shrs 51.8 mln vs 49.3 mln NOTE: Net excludes losses from discontinued operations of nil vs 16.1 mln dlrs in quarter and 227.5 mln dlrs vs 42.7 mln dlrs in nine mths. Quarter net includes gains from sale of aircraft of two mln dlrs vs 6,200,000 dlrs. ReuterCopy
• The National Association of Wheat Growers, NAWG, board of directors is scheduled to meet Secretary of State George Schultz and Undersecretary of State Allen Wallis to discuss the Department's current role in farm trade policy, the association said. NAWG President Jim Miller said in a statement that the organization wanted to convey to Secretary Schultz the importance that exports hold for U.S. agriculture and the degree to which farmers are dependent upon favorable State Department trade policies to remain profitable. "Foreign policy decisions of the U.S. State Department have in the past severely hampered our efforts to move our product to overseas markets," he said. Miller noted Secretary Schultz is scheduled to meet next month with representatives of the Soviet Union, and the NAWG "wanted to be certain the secretary was aware of our concerns regarding the reopening of wheat trade with the Soviet Union." The annual spring NAWG board of directors meeting is held in Washington to allow grower-leaders from around the country to meet with their state congressional delegations and members of the executive branch. The purpose is to discuss the current situation for producing and marketing wheat and help set the legislative and regulatory agenda for the coming year, the NAWG statement said. ReuterCopy
• The Bank of France is likely to cut its money market intervention rate by up to a quarter point at the start of next week. This follows a steady decline in the call money rate over the past 10 days and signals from the Finance Ministry that the time is ripe for a fall, dealers said. The call money rate peaked at just above nine pct ahead of the meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Five industrial countries and Canada on February 22, which restored considerable stability to foreign exchanges after several weeks of turbulence. The call money rate dropped to around 8-3/8 pct on February 23, the day after the Paris accord, and then edged steadily down to eight pct on February 27 and 7-3/4 pct on March 3, where it has now stabilised. Dealers said the Bank of France intervened to absorb liquidity to hold the rate at 7-3/4 pct. While call money has dropped by well over a percentage point, the Bank of France's money market intervention rate has remained unchanged since January 2, when it was raised to eight pct from 7-1/4 pct in a bid to stop a franc slide. The seven-day repurchase rate has also been unchanged at 8-3/4 since it was raised by a half-point on January 5. The Bank of France has begun using the seven-day repurchase rate to set an upper indicator for money market rates, while using the intervention rate to set the floor. Sources close to Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said that he would be happy to see an interest rate cut, and dealers said any fall in the intervention rate was most likely to come when the Bank of France buys first category paper next Monday, although an earlier cut could not be excluded. A cut in the seven-day repurchase rate could come as early as tomorrow morning, banking sources said. They said recent high interest rates have encouraged an acceleration in foreign funds returning to France, discouraging the authorities from making a hasty rate cut. But they also pointed out that money supply is broadly back on target, giving scope for a small fall in rates. M-3 money supply, the government's key aggregate, finished 1986 within the government's three to five pct growth target, rising 4.6 pct compared with seven pct in 1985. REUTERCopy