News In Brief

Argentine outlines a plan to end slump, revise debt

Argentine Economy Minister-designate Bernardo Grinspun outlined plans Tuesday for ending recession and rescheduling the $40 billion external debt when the new civilian government takes office next month.

Mr. Grinspun said his economic team was still gathering information about the state of the economy and had not yet begun drafting policies, but he reaffirmed election pledges by President-elect Raul Alfonsin's reformist Radical Party that the new government would raise real wages in the short term and cut the financial costs of industry by reducing government-controlled interest rates.

The government would also reduce the budget deficit by cutting unnecessary expenditures, although spending on education and health would increase. Grinspun said his team was studying a renegotiation of the foreign debt, which falls due next year.