President Minimizes High Rates: Says U.S. Imports Offsetting Interest...
President Reagan, in an exceptionally optimistic assessment of world economic prospects, said yesterday that the impact of high U.S. interest rates on Third World nations is more than offset by their opportunities to export more into the robust American economy.</br></br>Reagan, addressing the 39th joint annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, acknowledged "complaints about high interest rates,Û especially from Third World countries "legitimately concerned about the additional debt service costs they must bear.Û [Related story. Page FI.]</br></br>But he pointed to ÛÏa slight drop in [interest rates] the last several days,Û and added: ÛÏI believe there will be more of that ahead.Û</br></br>And he stressed the contribution to the economies of those nations from heavy U.S. imports from them.</br></br>For example, he said, in the first seven months of this year American imports from the non-oil-exporting poor countries had increased more than $12 billion over the amount in the same period of 1983.