European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 10, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 16 the stars and stripes Money matters tuesday August 10,1993 today s rates following Are fixed rates a which Community banking and credit Union facilities will sell for eign currencies to . Personnel for personal use Gorman Mark. 1.66 British Pound 1.53 dutch Guilder 1.86 greek drachma 232.442 note the rates above apply within the Host country. Figures Are expressed in Doi ars to the British Pound other currencies to the Dollar following Are Interbank rate that fluctuate and should be regarded As the approximate value of the . Dollar to foreign Curren cies italian lira 1,608.50 turkish lira 11,494.80 Spanish peseta 139.80 portuguese escudo. 173.70 austrian Schilling 11.935 saudi rial 3.75 Bahrain Dinar 0.3768 Kuwait Dinar 0.30095 norwegian Krone 7.367 danish Krone. 6.845 British Pound. 1.496 German Mark 1.6967 Swiss franc 1.5065 French franc. 5.9423 dutch Guilder 1.9065 belgian franc 36.30 Canadian Dollar 1.2922 note figures Are expressed in Zosars to the bar trash Pound. Bouief currencies to the Dot a Gold quote $382.50 an ounce Silver quote $4.63 an ounce rolling into China pm 4 or los Angeles a gasoline prices in the states fell again Over the past two weeks. The National average Price including All grades and taxes was 114.57 cents a gallon Down 0.92 cent from two weeks earlier and Down 1.99 cents from a month ago according to the aug. 6 Lundberg Survey of 10.000 filling stations nation wide. The drop was caused by lower prices for crude Oil and wholesale Gaso line Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said sunday. According to the biweekly Survey aver age prices at self serve pumps were regu Lar unleaded 107.63 cents mid Grade unleaded 118.94 cents Premium unleaded 126.80 cents and regular leaded 109.84cents. At full serve pumps which account for less than 5 percent of sales nationally the averages were regular unleaded 145.17 cents mid Grade unleaded 154.10 cents Premium unleaded 161.04 cents and regular leaded 137.83 cents. Hunt foods cutting jobs Fullerton. Calif. A Hunt foods co. Will Lay off More than 300 workers and Cut 550 seasonal positions apart of a streamlining of its Tomato proc Essing business. The cuts Are part of a shift from a sea Sonal packaging operation to a year round business Hunt president de Snell said. A Chevrolet Lumina Van Rolls off the ship at Beijing s Tianjin Chevy Corsica sedans to be delivered to China. The vehicles port saturday As part of the first Batch of Chevy vans and were ordered by the chinese government earlier this year. Frantic currency trading subsides Brussels Belgium a after weeks punctuated by frenzied buying and Selling of currencies Europe is experiencing something new Calm. But in restoring order to the Money markets the european Community has been forced to give up its dream of uneconomic and monetary Union in the coming years. It s not dead in the water but it s certainly delayed said Norbert Walter the chief economist at Deutsche Bank i Frankfurt Germany. Finance ministers of the trading bloc nations bowed to speculative pressure aug. 2 and effectively suspended the 14-year-old european a monetary system that had kept currencies fluctuating in narrow bands. They widened the ranges so most currencies could move up and Down by a hefty 15 percent on either Side of a Cen trial rate. Prior to that dec currencies except for the Spanish peseta and the portuguese escudo had been Able to move Only 2.25 percent up or Dow against a Central rate. In widening the ranges the finance ministers chased away speculators who had been betting that monetary authorities in France Denmark Belgium and other countries would be forced to devalue their currencies. Last week the French franc and other currencies regained strength. Some even moved into but then out of the Nar Row 2.25 percent bands used under the old rules. Only the dutch Guilder and the Irish Pound remained close to the Ger Man Mark the system s strongest currency. The Exchange rates have stabilized after the storm said Nigel Rendell International economist at James Capeland co., a London investment firm. The currency linkage under pressure for nearly a year sought to prevent wide shifts in members currencies and to keep inflation and interest rates under control. But speculators brought Down the Exchange rate mechanism by betting that the nations Many gripped by recession would be unable to keep interest rates and the value of their currencies up. Much of the chaos has been blamed on High German interest rates pushed up As a result of the expenses of unifying the East and the West. Other countries in the monetary system were forced to set inter est rates High or devalue their Money. Last september the British Pound an the italian lira were dumped from the monetary system under intense speculative pressure. With the easing of the trading bands Many analysts had predicted the nations would move quickly to lower interest rates and give a boost to their lagging economies. But that did t happen. Surprisingly the German Central Bank the Bundesbank snipped the Cost of Short term lending to commercial  saw this As a sign it would be will ing to trim rates further in the week ahead. The Spanish and portuguese Centra Lbanks lowered interest rates but French belgian and other monetary authorities held firm. There was a lot of Surprise that no body made Early use of the Chance to Cut rates said Walter of Deutsche Bank. Analysts though predicted More rat reductions in the coming weeks which would help the european economies by bringing Down the Cost of Money Spur ring investment and opening up new jobs. What we should see now is interest rates coming Down in most countries Rendell said. That should ensure a re covery in 1994." Many of the dec economies including the largest in Germany Are suffering from the worst recession in decades. Unemployment rates have skyrocketed forc ing More than 17 million people onto the jobless Rolls. The turbulence analysts said has shown the difficulty in trying to Mold a dozen diverse economies into a monetary Union with a joint Central Bank and a sin Gle currency by 1999. Fugitive escapes with no. I spot at Box office los Angeles a tvs Box office earnings of $23.4 Mil debut Industry sources said. The Moie remake of a popular Harrison Ford As a Man wrongly wife. "1 think we re on our by to a non. It was made with great Passio said producer Arnold Kopelson credits include is of s o car in in ran away with lion in its weekend discos to series stars accused of killing his Box office phenom n and sets of  a production  of u.\v.7. It s the Best film be Eer  or Sun which Drew the ire of asian activists who said the rr.o/, in stereotyped japanese businessmen dropped to no. 2 w Ith s9 j million. Chat Eastwood s secret sen ice thriller. In a l of f re to Furi with $5.5 million   Hook men in tights with $4.7 million. The firm a Legal thriller starring Tom cruise Wasse Ems with s4.5 million while the Romance sleepless in Seattle collected $3.7 million for the no. 8 spot. A in Mem s the meteor Man an inner City fantasy directed and written by its Star Robert Townsend de buted in the no. 9 Slot with a lacklustre $2.8 million i receipts. It was followed by Janet Jackson s no. 10 poetic jus of. Which collected $1.2 million and debuted at no. 1