Plans for key reforms of the European Community’s (EC) controversial farm policy will almost certainly have to be referred to the bloc’s heads of government at a summit meeting on June 29 and 30, Belgian finance minister Mark Eyskens said today. Eyskens was speaking at a news conference after chairing a joint meeting of EC finance and agriculture ministers which was designed to help break a deadlock over this year’s EC farm price package which has endured since March.

Fine weather throughout Europe allowed farmers to make good progress with sugar beet sowings during the period April 16-21, but conditions in the Soviet Union remained unfavourable, West German analyst F.O. Licht said. With daytime temperatures in parts of Europe exceeding 20 degrees centigrade Licht said sowings have been boosted and may be completed in most countries by the end of the month. In France the beet growers’ association said the entire crop could be sown within a week if the good weather persists.

Denmark’s net official reserves rose to 49.49 billion crowns in March from 36.34 billion in February, against 43.13 billion in March 1986, the central bank said in its monthly balance sheet report. Total net reserves, including reserves held by commercial and major savings banks and corrected for exchange rate adjustments, rose to 45.263 billion crowns from 37.26 billion in February, compared with 35.31 billion in March 1986. “The increase must be seen against the background of a considerable inflow of foreign exchange after the outflow up to the EMS realignment in January,” the bank said in a statement.

The Venice summit accord gives the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased responsibility in smoothing vital economic cooperation between industrial countries, a senior IMF official said. The official, who met reporters but asked not to be identified, made clear that the use of a series of economic measurements to monitor the seven leading industrial democracies would be difficult but was a major step in cooperation. The United States, Japan, West Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada agreed at the summit to use a series of economic indicators to forecast economic behaviour in an attempt to increase cooperation on economic policy.

A 0.4 pct rise in the March U.S. index of leading indicators points to continued moderate U.S. real economic growth, economists said. “The report is consistent with a modestly growing economy,” said Steve Slifer of Lehman Government Securities Inc. “The economy is not robust, but we’re not heading into a recession either.” “The report suggests more of the same: continued moderate growth,” said Ward McCarthy of Merrill Lynch Government and Co Inc.

Norway’s stock exchange has touched record levels, propelled by higher oil prices and foreign buying interest. But analysts say the bullish trend probably will not last. Tight restrictions on foreign ownership of shares have held back development on the market, they say. While some of these rules could soon be eased, Norway’s unresolved economic woes mean the prices boom is likely to be short-lived. Last Thursday, the all-share index reached 325.

India, which received its first loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1986, expects to increase borrowing this year, an Indian official said. The official, a member of the Indian delegation at the ADB’s annual meeting here, told Reuters the bank is likely to approve three loans totalling between 350 and 400 mln dlrs in 1987, up from the 250 mln in two loans in 1986. The official said negotiations on a 100 mln dlr loan for the modernisation of the Haldia and Madras ports had been completed and only need approval by the bank’s board.

Treasurer Paul Keating said he now expected the Australian current account deficit for fiscal 1986/87 ending June 30 to come in around 13.25 billion dlrs. In a statement released after Statistics Bureau figures showed the May deficit was below forecasts at 866 mln dlrs, Keating said the cumulative deficit is now likely to be about 1.5 billion dlrs below the Treasury forecast of 14.75 billion issued with the 1986/87 Budget papers last August.

A Chinese newspaper said the country must be careful about introducing credit instruments to avoid the risk of an uncontrolled credit expansion. It said: “The introduction of credit, while undoubtedly facilitating business, could result in unhealthy expansion of the volume of money in circulation…” adding that the ordinary consumer must learn how to use credit wisely. The paper said in an editorial that “a sound approach and one that will not entail the risks of introducing uncontrolled expansion of credit into the monetary system is the present one of issuing renminbi in larger denomications.

Japan’s preliminary industrial production index (base 1980) rose 0.7 pct to a seasonally adjusted 122.8 in March from the previous month, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said. Production had fallen 0.2 in Feburary from a month earlier. The preliminary, unadjusted March index fell 0.2 pct from a year earlier after remaining flat in Feburary. The adjusted March producers’ shipment index (same base) fell 0.6 to 117.3 from February. The unadjusted index rose 0.