European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 20, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes thursday february 20, 1992money matters today a tip the Uso has produced a video called heroes for hire aimed at Selling the concept of hiring those soon to leave the service. The video features statements by top executives of . Firms and another by Gen. Colin l. Powell chairman of the joint chiefs of staff lauding the abilities of those in uniform. The video also provides tips on How to find qualified military applicants through defense department programs. The department plans to Send copies of the video to its 355 transition offices serving All services. It will also be sent to military and veterans organizations Uso offices and .  rates London up wednesday s 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 $352 25 an ounce Silver at $4 08 feb. 18 feb. 19 British Pound .1.7514 1.7515 German mark.1 6210 1.6440 French franc .5.6020 5.6007 dutch Guilder .1.8550 1.8525 belgian franc.33.92 33.81 italian lira.1,234.95 1,234.95 Swiss franc. 1.4885 1.4845 greek drachma.189.76 189.64 turkish lira.5,740.80 5,755.90 saudi arabian Nyal. 3 75 3 75 Spanish peseta.103.04 103.02 portuguese escudo .141.37 141.42 Canadian Dollar.11915 1.1892 austrian schilling.11 5575 11.5920 norwegian Krone .6 4450 6.4490 danish krone.6.3740 6 3720 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 1.61 through thursday based on wednesdays noontime  York Exchange new York up a the 15 most Active stocks in new Yolk Stock Exchange composite trading on tuesday. Stock Saniei last Nal chg. Uniss corp 5.595,100 11 is up % Glaxo holdings 3,883.000 29% up % Micera group 3,493,300 34 Vii off 4% Chrysler corp 3,135,200 16% unch general motors 2,615,500 37% off % Wendy s inti 2,408,500 12% unch Hanson pc 2.332,600 18% up % Avistar inti 2,310,300 3% unch Ford motor co 2,265,600 36% off a Wal Mart stores 2,130,900 51% 0112 Natl med enter 2,007,500 14% 0 1% Citicorp 1,971,000 16% up % Bristol Myersq 1,868,200 77% off % at amp to company 1,804,300 37% 0 1 1 Fedl Natl Mage 1.784,600 60% Oil 2% american Exchange new York up american Stock exch a the 10 most Active stocks in Inge composite trading tuesday. Stock sates last Nal chg. Wang labs inc b dog corp 2,419,700 5% up % 1,022,900 6% up 1% Alza corp 697,400 40% o 12 go video inc 652.100 3% 0 1 % magma Copper co 542,700 8% unch Echo Bay mines 418,600 7% Oil % no Amer vaccine 393,500 12% Oil 1% Ivan corp 384,900 34 o 13 Nantucket ind 374,200 11% up 2% fruit of loom 363,600 33% up % Dow Jones new York up tuesday 30 industrials 20 transport 15 utilities 65 stocks Dow Jones closing Range of averages High Low Citso change 3280 19 3195 66 3224 73 off 21 24 1435 16 1410 31 1420 03 up 13 83 208 31 205 06 206 00 off 1 81 1185 72 1159 72 1168 82 Oft 2 31 Low food Energy costs keep january Price Rise to Only 0.1 % Washington a consumer prices Rose just 0.1 percent in january the Best inflation performance in six months the government said wednesday. The labor department credited falling Energy posts and a drop in food prices for the Good showing in its consumer Price Index. The january Advance which matched a similarly tiny 0.1 percent Rise last july followed a revised december gain of 0.2 percent. The december gain had originally been reported As a 0.3 percent increase. If january a increase held steady for 12 months it would result in an annualized rate of inflation of just 0.9 percent. Although economists Are not forecasting that Good of a performance this year they do expect consumer prices will Rise by Only 3 percent to 3.5 percent for the whole year. That would Mark Little change from last years 3.1 percent increase when the recession and falling Oil prices combined to give the country its Best news on prices since 1986. A we believe that inflation has stabilized and it is not an immediate problem a said David Wyss an economist with Dri Mcgraw Hill a consulting firm in Lexington mass. The Bush administration worried about a sick Economy in an election year has continually pointed to the Good news on inflation to support its argument that the Federal Reserve has plenty of room to Cut interest rates further. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan testified wednesday before Congress about the feds views on interest rate policies. Few analysts however. Were looking for any change from Greenspan s recent stance that the Central Bank has already eased credit enough to Spur a recovery later this year. The Small 0.1 percent january Rise in prices reflected the fact that Energy costs fell for the first time since last july declining 1.5 percent. That drop included a 1.9 percent fall in gasoline costs which left pump prices 18.1 percent below their Peak level reached in november 1990 following iraqi president Saddam Hussein a invasion of Kuwait. Home heating Oil costs declined for a second consecutive month dropping 5.5 percent in january. They now stand 31.3 percent below their 1990 Peak. Natural Gas and electricity costs also fell in january by smaller amounts. Food prices dropped by 0.4 percent. 7% increase in exports last year kept battered . Economy afloat by the los Angeles times Brussels Belgium a it is one of the largely unheralded economic Phenomena of the 1990s exports have kept the wobbly . Economy from spinning wildly out of control. Economic output in the United states fell 0.7 percent last year. Exports meanwhile surged by almost 7 percent. Without that growth in exports the years Overall decline in output would have been double what it was. Nowhere Are . Exporters having better Success than in Europe. Sales to the 12 nations of the european Community soared by 8.5 percent in the first seven months of last year to an annual level of $105 billion. That makes the dec the biggest foreign customer of american business ahead of Canada at $85 billion and Japan at $49 billion. Consequently the United states is running a hefty Trade surplus with the eco $16 billion at an annual rate through the first seven months of last year compared with a deficit of nearly $20 billion just three years earlier. Aircraft and electronics top the list of the . Industries with the strongest Export growth. Quot High technology exports have led the Way a said Stephen Cooney director of International investment and finance for the National association of manufacturers in Washington. A the cliche that the United states is exporting potato chips not semiconductor chips is not  some of the major causes of . Exporters Success a a weak Dollar and Strong european economic growth a Are transitory. Yet the Export surge is persisting and Cooney for one believes it can continue. The Export Boom began when the Dollar which relentlessly gained in value during the first half of the 1980s, started sliding in Early 1985. Since then the Dollar has lost nearly half its value against Many Western european currencies. Beyond the declining Dollar the climate in Europe has been right for . Goods. A dec �?T92,�?� the european Community a program to dismantle Trade barriers among its member nations by the end of 1992, is making it easier for . As Well ase european manufacturers to operate overseas. And thanks to an economic Boom in the second half of the 1980s, Western europeans have had the Money to buy foreign goods. Now however Europe s major econ German Boom stalled in 1991 by the new York times Bonn Germany a Germany a reunification Boom fizzled into economic stagnation during 1991. Figures released tuesday by the Federal statistics office showed the German Economy Europe a largest was hit hard in 1991 by recessions occurring elsewhere in the world dwindling Domestic consumption huge overseas payments and a Steep Rise in interest rates that Hurt Export sales. Those factors pushed Germany s current account which includes Trade in merchandise services tourism and certain financial transfers into a deficit of 34.2 billion Marks or $21 billion in 1991. The deficit is Germany a first since 1981 and contrasts to a surplus of 77.4 billion Marks or $47.7 billion in 1990. Huge financial transfers including payments of More than 30 billion Marks or $18.5 billion to the Allied Powers in the persian Gulf War and to the european Community worsened the current account deficit. The surplus in merchandise Trade which measures exports of goods against imports declined to 20.8 billion Marks or $12.8 billion in 1991, from 107.4 billion Marks or $66.2 billion the previous year. Germany a Trade with the United states swung into a deficit of 1.3 billion Marks or $800 million in 1991, compared with a surplus of 9.8 billion Marks or $6 billion in 1990. The Bundesbank Germany scentral Bank in its monthly report said Western Germany a Gross National product shrank by an estimated five tenths of 1 percent in the fourth Quarter of 1991, compared with the third Quarter. It was the third consecutive Quarter without growth. Homies Are sagging. Britain remains stuck in recession and Germany is teetering after its Post unification Boom. For this year Dri Mcgraw Hill a consulting firm in Lexington mass., predicts weak economic growth of Between 1 percent and 2 percent for Europe a biggest economies a Britain Germany France and Italy. For . Exporters however prospects May not be so Bleak As those numbers suggest. Dri predicts that merchandise imports will grow by a brisk 5 percent this year in Britain Germany and France. And those numbers miss the new sales opportunities that some american exporters Are finding in Eastern Europe. Take Caterpillar inc., for example which had a poor year in 1991. With the . Economy mired in recession the Illinois company could scarcely Budge its Earth moving machines off its . Showroom floors. Its Bottom line showed $404 million in losses. But Caterpillar Salesman Wols mock Kat Isnit complaining. That a because he is Selling Caterpillar machines in Eastern Germany where business is booming. A the demand is very great because the need in our Region for roads Railroad tracks and sewage canals is enormous a said Moc Kat caterpillars Branch manager in Berlin and regional manager for much of Eastern Germany. Caterpillar now has 14 outlets in former East Germany where there had been none until last february. Sales of its Gigantic earthmover jumped from none in 1989 to 355 in 1990 and 758 last year. Altogether half of caterpillars sales last year were abroad. Exports brought in $3.71 billion in Revenue and supported 19,500 jobs in the United states. The multiplex co. Of St. Louis which makes soft drink dispensing machines for Mcdonald a and other restaurants is finding its biggest growth markets in Eastern Germany Poland Czechoslovakia Hungary and even what used to be Yugoslavia. No . Industry has contributed As much to the european Export Boom As aircraft. According to the Commerce department exports to Europe soared from about $4 billion in 1986 to $11.5 billion in 1990. At the beginning of the 1980s, Cooney said the . Civilian aircraft Industry exported about one Quarter of its output. By the end of the decade he said the Industry had sold five sixths of its products overseas