The Dutch central bank has intervened in the currency markets today, in apparent concerted action with other central banks, foreign exchange dealers said. They detected selling of the yen for dollars, which some estimated would run to a moderate 200 mln guilders, comparable to token Dutch intervention reported last week. Other dealers, however, said they believed today’s moderate intervention had been in guilders against dollar. The dealers agreed the intervention was minimal and more a political gesture than a market moving force.

South Korea’s energy consumption rose nine pct to 61.07 mln tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) in 1986 from 56.0 mln in 1985, energy ministry officials told Reuters. They said oil accounted for 46.7 pct of energy consumption in 1986 against 48.5 pct in 1985. Anthracite accounted for 21.0 pct against 21.5 pct, bituminous coal 16.5 pct against 17.3 pct and nuclear power 11.6 pct against 7.5 pct. The amount spent on energy imports in 1986 was 4.

Sharp cuts this year in U.S. planted acreage may not make a big dent in the U.S. grain stockpile but will at least keep grain surpluses from increasing, Agriculture Department and industry commodity analysts said. “The scenario is turning around on stocks. The whole supply/demand picture could finally be getting more in balance,” a USDA analyst said. The USDA prospective plantings report this week indicated that U.S. farmers will idle 52-55 mln acres in annual acreage reduction programs this year.

Central bank money stock was growing at about seven pct in the first quarter of 1987, down from 9-1/2 pct in the second half of 1986, so there are signs that the pace of growth is slowing even though it is still above target, the Bundesbank said in its 1986 annual report. The Bundesbank set a target range of three to six pct growth from fourth quarter 1986 to fourth quarter 1987 for central bank money stock.

The World Bank has suggested India should move to a more open economy by gradually removing most government controls on industry and adopting a liberal external trade policy with reduced levels of protection. A confidential “executive summary” of a draft Bank report on the Indian economy was made available to Reuters. It suggests liberalisation as part of a package of reforms to boost exports of Indian goods by making them more competitive.

U.S. personal income rose 0.2 pct, or 5.4 billion dlrs, in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3,603.9 billion dlrs, the Commerce Department said. The increase followed an upwardly revised 1.3 pct rise in February. Earlier, the department said income rose 0.9 pct in February. Personal consumption expenditures rose 0.3 pct, or 8.9 billion dlrs, to 2,882.6 billion dlrs in March after rising a revised 2.4 pct in February instead of the previously reported 1.

Federal Home Loan Bank Board chairman Edwin Gray said pending bills do not provide enough money for the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp to deal with insolvent thrift associations. The Senate has passed a bill to provide 7.5 billion dlrs in FSLIC recapitalization, while the House Banking Committee has approved five billion dlrs in new funds. “We are operating right now on net operating losses of four billion dlrs a year.

Spanish Secretary of State for the economy Guillermo de la Dehesa said the government maintained its five pct inflation target for this year although a 0.6 pct increase in March pushed the rise in the year on year consumer price index to 6.3 pct. De la Dehesa said the March rise, announced today by the National Statistics Institute, was not entirely satisfactory but acceptable. The year on year rate at the end of February was six pct.

Belgian Finance Minister Mark Eyskens warmly welcomed this week’s increase in U.S. Prime rates, calling it a move that went beyond the Group of Five and Canada Paris accord on stabilising currencies. The rate rise would underpin economic and financial policy convergence among major countries, he added. In an interview with Reuters, Eyskens also made clear he believed the countries involved in the accord – the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, Britain and Canada – had agreed “tentative” fluctuation ranges for exchange rates.

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone was advised to work out a plan for his government to buy more than one billion dlrs worth of foreign industrial products as part of efforts to defuse Japan’s trade frictions with the United States, officials said. Former Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe made the recommendation at a meeting with Nakasone soon after returning from a U.S. Visit designed to pave the way for the prime minister’s visit to Washington starting next Wednesday.