VENEZUELA MAY ASK IMF FOR CREDITS
venezuela may turn to the international
monetary fund for credits as part of the country's overall
effort to reestablish financial flows from abroad, finance
minister manuel azpurua said today.
    "this is no secret. It's just one of the steps the executive
has begun taking to reestablish financial flows to the country,"
azpurua told reporters at the finance ministry.
    He did not specify what types of loans venezuela would seek
from the fund or the amounts involved.
    A technical team from the imf is currently in caracas
gathering data for its annual report on the venezuelan economy,
the finance minstry said. Members of the mission met today with
officials from the ministry's public finance department.
    Venezuela is one of the few latin american debtors which
has not drawn standby or extended fund facilty loans from the
imf since the region's financial crisis began in 1982.
    The country has an imf quota of 1.371 mln sdr's (1.75
billion dollars), according to the fund's 1986 report.
 Reuter
