Cuba Agrees on Rescheduling Plan for Debt

Cuba, which has been urging Third World nations to repudiate their foreign debt, agreed on a rescheduling plan for some of the debt that it owes to foreign banks, Credit Lyonnais said Thursday.

Credit Lyonnais, the government-owned French bank that is chairman of Cuba’s debt coordinating committee, said the accord gives Cuba a six-year grace period on its medium-term debt due in 1985 and then allows repayment over the following four years.

The debt from 110 banks was equivalent to $90 million in West German marks, Swiss francs, Canadian dollars and Japanese yen, the bank said. Cuba will have about the same amount of debt falling due to bank creditors next year.

Also covered by the accord is about $375 million of short-term credit lines to National Bank of Cuba that will be extended to Sept. 30, 1986, from Sept. 30, 1985. Seventy banks were involved in extending the credit lines.

Cuban President Fidel Castro has urged other developing nations to repudiate the debts that they owe foreign banks and governments. He has said that Latin America’s heavy debt obligations prevent the creation of new jobs for the more than 100 million unemployed workers in the region and prevent financially strapped governments from providing health care to the sick.

While no Latin American nation has repudiated its debt, several governments have asked for concessions from their lenders, such as longer pay-back periods and lower interest rates.