New credit advanced by finance houses, retailers, bank credit cards and other specialist providers of credit rose to 2.95 billion stg in February from 2.70 billion in Janaury, when bad weather had a depressing effect, the Department of Trade and Industry said. Of the February total, 1.28 billion stg was advanced on bank credit cards. On a three-month basis, total advances in December to February were 2.0 pct higher than in the previous three months.

A top Japanese businessman said the country’s four largest economic organizations will soon present to the government a set of proposals to expand domestic demand. Eishiro Saito, Chairman of the Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), told a news conference the government should draw up a package of economic measures totalling more than 5,000 billion yen. Saito said the government’s package should include plans to remove residual import restrictions on agricultural products and to lift tariffs on industrial products.

The Bank of Finland said it was reducing restrictions on the use of money market rates as reference rates for loans. The Bank would start quoting money market rates referred to as HELIBOR (Helsinki Interbank Offered Rate). Banks may henceforth use these as reference rates in their lending, it said. From May 1 the banks would be allowed, without special central bank approval, to use as a reference rate not only its base rate but also other Bank of Finland rates or the official money market rate used in market transactions.

Blocking Canadian gas imports would not serve the long-term interests of the United States, said Martha Hesse, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, adding that the development of a freely open North American energy market should be encouraged. “I firmly believe that the long-term interest of U.S. consumers would not be served by any attempt to promote a ‘Made in America’ label for gas,” she said at an oil and gas conference.

In a fresh sign of the strains caused by Brazil’s suspension of interest payments on its medium-and long-term debt, U.S. bank regulators have lowered their rating of the country’s creditworthiness to “substandard,” bankers said. Brazil was previously ranked as an “other transfer risk problem.” Reserves would have to be set aside for loans to Brazil only if its credit rating were lowered by another notch to “value impaired,” but bankers said the regulators’ decision should be read as a sign of official concern about the deterioration in Brazil’s finances.

The dollar should worth more than 170 yen based on purchasing power parity, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said in its annual white paper on international trade. Using 1973 as a base year, the ministry said inflation differentials pointed to a yen/dollar rate of 172 in fourth quarter 1986. The dollar opened here today at 144.90 yen. MITI also said the so-called “J-curve” and the drop in oil prices together accounted for 33.

The Ecuadorean economy, struck by an earthquake last month, will contract an estimated four pct in 1987 and its crude oil output will drop by 42 pct, the government’s national development council (Conade) said. A Conade report, dated April 21 and obtained, said that the country’s gross domestic product (gdp) would fall by an estimated four pct compared to 1.5 pct growth last year. Conade functions as the country’s main planning institution.

Federal Reserve Board Governor Wayne Angell said the Reagan appointed majority on the board was not at odds with Chairman Paul Volcker on whether interest rates should rise to support the dollar. “I would anticipate very little difference between the chairman’s position on price-level stability - and on the view of the dollar in foreign exchange markets - and my own,” Angell said in an interview with the New York Times.

Insects are threatening to destroy 367,000 hectares or about one-third of the spring rice crop in northern Vietnam, Hanoi radio reported. Drought has hit another 189,000 hectares, with 40,000 hectares very badly affected, it said. Insecticides are in short supply so only the most endangered rice fields should be sprayed, the radio added. The affected areas – the Red River delta and other coastal areas in northern Vietnam – produce between 30 to 40 per cent of the country’s rice.

India plans to export about 280 mln kilos of tea a year by 1990, up from estimates of 202 mln in 1986 and 220 mln in 1985, Minister of State for Commerce Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told Parliament. Bad weather reduced domestic tea output in 1986 causing a shortfall in exports. To boost exports the government recently introduced higher cash compensatory support on packet tea, excise tax rebate of 50 paise per kilo of bulk tea, full rebate of excise duty on packet tea exports and exemption of customs duty on filter paper used in making tea bags, he said.