MEXICO'S RESERVES REACH EIGHT BILLION DLRS

  Additional capital inflows of 1.5
  billion dlrs so far this year have boosted Mexico's reserves to
  about eight billion dlrs, director of public credit Angel
  Gurria told reporters.
      Money has been coming back to Mexico because of improved
  investor confidence and because a tight monetray policy has
  forced credit-starved industries to repatriate capital. Inflows
  totalled a billion dlrs in fourth-quarter 1986.
      Gurria said Mexico is not accumulating reserves for the
  sake of it. He said its new loans will increase the pool of
  funds available for badly needed investment.
      Once the first tranche of its new six billion dlr loan is
  drawn down in the second quarter, Mexico will still only have
  enough reserves to pay for imports and debt service for four or
  five months, Gurria noted.
      Nevertheless, Gurria said Mexico does not expect to draw on
  the commercial banks' 1.2 billion dlr investment-support
  contingency facility. That money will be available until April
  1988 if Mexico's export receipts and the price of oil fall
  below certain levels. But Mexico failed to qualify for the
  first two drawings totalling 451 mln dlrs, and Gurria said
  today, "We expect we'll never have to use it."
      Gurria said Mexico will know by June whether it can draw on
  the second contingency facility included in the bank financing
  package - a 500 mln dlr growth co-financing loan with the World
  Bank.
      Finance minister Gustavo Petricioli said he had signed
  yesterday a 250 mln dlr loan with the World Bank to support the
  development of exports of manufactured goods.
      He also said the first 250 mln dlr tranche of a one billion
  dlr loan from the Japanese government to support steel, oil and
  export promotion will be disbursed at the end of the month.
      Mexico is also due to make the third drawing from its
  International Monetary Fund standby credit in the next few days
  based on a successful review of end-1986 economic results.
      Petricioli said Mexico is in the final stages of
  discussions which will determine quantitative economic targets
  for 1987 which will allow it to continue to draw from the IMF
  for the rest of 1987.
      Petricioli reported that Mexico has so far concluded eight
  bilateral accords with government creditors within the Paris
  Club.
      Sixteen governments signed the Paris Club umbrella
  agreement last September, which restructured 1.8 billion dlrs
  of official debt, and Petricioli said he hopes to finalize
  pacts with the remaining eight countries in the next few weeks.
      In keeping with the spirit of the September agreement, he
  said all countries from the Organization of Economic
  Cooperation and Development have continued to provide export
  credit facilities for Mexico, despite the debt restructuring.
  

