Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, October 30, 1998
Isle building contracts rose 23% in September
The value of contracts for future construction in Hawaii rose 23 percent last month, according to a monthly report. The F.W. Dodge division of the McGraw-Hill Cos. reported that new contracts for construction last month equaled $128.5 million, compared with $104.6 million in September 1997. For the year through September, however, total construction contracts in Hawaii were down 14 percent, $1.19 billion vs. $1.39 billion in the same period last year.
Nations endorse plan to speed up IMF loans
WASHINGTON -- The world's wealthiest countries today endorsed President Clinton's proposal to allow the International Monetary Fund to speed emergency loans to countries facing the threat of investor panic.The IMF loan mechanism is likely to be employed almost immediately as part of an expected $30 billion rescue package for Brazil, the latest country to be pummeled by frightened investors. The news sent Brazil's battered stock market soaring 7.8 percent today.
Clinton today said the joint statement had been worked out in recent days through a series of telephone calls involving officials of the Group of 7 countries, the world's largest economies. The key element of the plan was a proposal Clinton put forward earlier this month. It would create a new mechanism, dispensing IMF loans that could be tapped quickly to ward off the panic flight of investors trying to get out of a country ahead of everyone else.
In other news . . .
MANILA -- Cathay Pacific Airways is negotiating the terms of a buy-in of Philippine Airlines that would give it management rights over the troubled carrier. Alex Shum, Cathay Pacific's manager in the Philippines, today said the Hong Kong-based airline has not submitted a formal offer but plans to do so soon. Cathay airline wants management control over PAL.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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