European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 17, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday february 17, 1992 the stars and stripes b Page 17money matters today a tip 1 the United states and other group of seven industrialized nations have begun laying the Oun Dwork for a multimillion Dol a fund to stabilize the enfeebled russian Ruble. Some officials say such a fund might be set up in three to four months. When russian president Boris n. Yeltsin visited recently with president Bush in Washington he and his economic aides strenuously urged the United states to help set up a fund that in effect would Back the Ruble with foreign Money and so reduce economic and political instability during russians Long and difficult Winter. The proposed fund Likely would Range from $5 billion to $12 billion. The United states has hinted to some industrialized nations that it might take part in the fund. But american officials see Many obstacles among them russians High inflation rate its Large budget deficit and the primitive state of its banking  rates London up fridays rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in dollars Gold was quoted at $355.35 an ounce Sliver at $4.20. Feb. 13 feb. 14 British pound.1.77135 1.76b85 German mark.1.8220 1.6280 French franc.5.4570 5.5175 dutch guilder.1.8020 1.8300 belgian franc.33.38 33.51 italian lira.1,204.20 1,217.30 Swiss franc.1.4565 1.4660 greek drachma.185.24 187.45 turkish lira.5,601.00 5,657.80 saudi arabian rtyal.3.7501 3.7501 Spanish peseta.100.78 101.92 portuguese escudo.137.87 139.63 Canadian dollar.1.1829 1.1856 austrian schilling.11.2600 11.4020 norwegian krone.6.2820 6.3580 danish krone.6.2060 6.2850 these Are commercial rates and can be related Only to the use of foreign currency by . Forces for official business. The Only official rate concerns the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be 1.58 through monday based on fridays noontime Price-fixing.2 Honda plants idled in Japan Tokyo up a Honda motor co. Shut Down two of its japanese factories for one Day last week and will slow production at the plants for two More Days because of poor Auto sales a spokesman said. It was the first time in the company a history that it has suspended factory operations the spokesman said. He blamed Slack demand in Japan and the United states Honda Japan a third largest automaker suffered a 6 percent drop in its . Sales in 1991 from the previous year. Its Domestic sales also dropped 1.1 percent to 678,700 in 1991. Japan a share of the . Car Market declined 0.5 percentage Point to 12.4 percent in Early february and another 0.1 percent since Jan. 1. The japanese automakers also lost 0.2 percent of the Light truck Market in the feb. 1-10 period retaining 3.3 percent of the Market and took a 0.1 percent Market share loss since the first of the year. 2 open members Challenge shaky pact to Cut production by Youssef m. Ibrahim the new York times Geneva a open agreed saturday to reduce its Oil output by a Little More than a million barrels a Day but both saudi Arabia and Iran the groups two largest members immediately registered serious and conflicting objections to the Accord. Iran demanded further cuts in production while saudi Arabia refused to abide by the quota allocated to it by the organization of Petroleum exporting countries. Several Oil Industry analysts described the open agreement As weak and said much deeper production cuts Are needed to bolster Oil prices. Prices have been depressed by a mild Winter and an International recession that have reduced the demand for Petroleum. Moreover analysts said Oil prices were Likely to fall another $1 to $2 a barrel in the next week. In a Clear indication that open Oil ministers realize they have failed to set credible production limits the group has arranged an International meeting for april 24 in Vienna Austria. It has invited Oil producing nations that do not belong to open to the meeting and Hopes to enlist their Aid in restraining Oil output. But open will Likely Convene an emergency meeting even sooner than april several open delegates said saturday. A a it a a disaster a said Peter Gignoux manager of the Petroleum desk at Smith Barney Harris Upham amp co., an investment firm in London. A with All the focus on the meeting this is not an adequate nor appropriate conclusion. That much production is what the saudis wanted but the Market will interpret this As a very weak agreement a he said. After four Days of talks open agreed to reduce its 13 members total output to 22.9 million barrels a Day Down from 24.2 million. Moreover the Accord would assign saudi Arabia a production quota of 7.8 million barrels a Day. It but saudi Arabia opposes that Iota arguing that it had done More than its share by agreeing to Cut a half million barrels from its daily output of 8.5 million barrels. Although the saudis for several Days had been staunchly insisting on producing no less than 8 million barrels a Day several Oil ministers at the open meeting had believed that they would Compromise at the last minute. Iran meanwhile argued that the production ceiling for the 13 members was too High and urged the group to drop its Overall output to 22.5 million barrels. In a rare departure from the usual show of consensus at open meetings both countries insisted on registering their objections in the communique summing up the meeting. The dispute Between saudi Arabia the largest Oil producer in open and Iran the no. 2 producer at 3.3 million barrels a Day has added further uncertainty to Opecz a ability to rein in its runaway Oil production which reached an 11-year High last month. Several Oil ministers conceded that the new production limits were not enough to keep Oil prices from  the last months crude prices have dropped about $5 to a worldwide average of just under $17 a barrel. A this agreement is not enough to bring an improvement in prices which we All hoped for a said Nordine Ait Loussine algerians Energy minister. A but it May be enough to arrest the drop in prices which we All  the saudi Oil minister Hisham m. Nazer defended his country a position saying saudi Arabia had offered to reduce its production by half a million barrels an amount he said was More than a open Oil prices average Price of a Basket of seven crude oils monitored by open. In . Dollars $30 $10 a Gult costs begins a third of the total output Cut by the organization. E but iranian officials noted that saudi production went up by More than 3.5 i Ion barrels a Day after Iraq and Kuwait stopped exporting Oil when the persian Gull crisis started in August 1990. They argued that saudi production should come Down far More substantially. A i believe that producing More than 22.5 million barrels a Day cannot help prices a Gholamreza a Azadeh Iran soil minister said saturday. Open has a poor record of enforcing production discipline and Many Oil Industry analysts and even open ministers Are sceptical that the group will strongly enforce the new output Accord. Study disputes methanol benefits Sacramento Calif. Up methanol hailed As the cleaner fuel of the future wont reduce Urban smog any better than gasoline but will Cost More at the pump a study by three major automakers and 14 Oil companies has concluded. Researchers comparing methanol fuel and conventional gasoline in various combinations of test vehicles found methanol was Likely to increase or decrease Ozone pollution depending on the car types used. The studies Are billed As the first Large scale test of methanol in flexible fuel vehicles. Methanol fuel known As m85, is an alcohol based blend of 85 percent methanol and 15 percent unleaded regular gasoline. It helps Auto companies get better fuel Economy averages. Flexible fuel cars can run on gasoline m85 or a combination. Methanol tested in prototype flexible fuel cars a and compared with conventional gasoline burned in current models a was projected to increase smog in los Angeles 26 percent by the year 2010, but would have no effect in new York. However when methanol was tested against conventional gasoline burned in flexible fuel cars it was projected to decrease Ozone in los Angeles by 10 percent and in new York by 8 percent. Earlier tests concluded that reformulated gasoline which Burns More Thor of woul Ghlyn and cleanly than current gasoline mid reduce smog 26 percent in los Angeles 23 percent in Dallas and 15 percent in new York in the same time periods. A there s at least no Clear Benefit to methanol a said Robert Trunek senior vice president of Arco products co. And a Mem or of the Auto Oil air Quality research program. The Auto Oil study by economist Robert Hahn of the american Enterprise Institute and Harvard University showed that methanol fuel is expected to Cost about 54 cents a gallon More than gasoline through the turn of the Century but demand will eventually shrink the increase to 12 cents a gallon. Visa s losses on counterfeit cards soaring san Francisco up visa International said Friday that its annual losses from counterfeit cards have nearly doubled to $100 million due mainly to a surge in counterfeiting rings in the asian Pacific Region. Visa which has issued More than 274 million cards worldwide said it expects its losses for the period Between april 1, 1991, and March 31 of this year to Rise to More than $100 million compared with $55 million in the same period a year earlier. It said that if counterfeiting losses continue to increase at the current rate the figure could exceed $175 million next year. Visa absorbs the losses from such transactions although it does have insurance to cover such occurrences. Visa spokesman Brad Hennig said the company had been Able to reduce counterfeiting losses in the late 1980s by placing holograms on the cards. However he added the new counterfeiters Are Able to copy the Hologram cards. Quot we re finding that they Are very sophisticated operations a he said. Hennig said one major counterfeiter was recently discovered in Hong Kong but he could not comment on where the activity has been most prevalent. Visa reported last month that during the third Quarter transactions in the asian Pacific Region were up 26 percent to $10 billion compared with the same Quarter a year ago. Cards in circulation have risen to 45.4 million 23 percent increase. In Japan visa is adding 1 million new cards a month