Mexican crisis talks planned

Press, 1 September 1982, Page 8

Mexican crisis talks planned

NZPA Mexico City President-elect Miguel de la Madrid plans to discuss Mexico’s economic crisis when he meets President Ronald Reagan, possibly within the next month. The meeting would come as Mr de la Madrid prepares to take over the Presidency in December, during the worst recession to grip Mexico since its 1910-20 revolution. Uncertainty about Mexico’s economic future and complaints about rising prices have heightened speculation about what President Jose Lopez Portillo will say in his final State of the Union speech today. The Government, saddled with a SNZIII billion foreign debt and dropping revenues

because of low prices for oil. silver, coffee, and other major exports, devalued the peso from 27 to 49 to the dollar on February 17, then to more than 100 pesos to the dollar on August 5. Inflation is soaring beyond the 60 per cent forecast for the year and unemployment is expected to rise sharply, Last week Mexico asked for a 90-day postponement of $lO billion in foreign debt payments because of a severe shortage of cash. The United States Federal Reserve Board yesterday announced that the United States would provide half of‘ SUSI.BS billion (SNZ2.S billion) of emergency shortterm loans by 12 industrial countries to help Mexico through its financial crisis.