Bankers Agree to Reschedule Poland’s Debt

Poland has reached a new rescheduling agreement with its 500 foreign bank creditors covering $204 million of principal payments due this year and in 1990, British bankers said Wednesday.

The pact revises a $9.4-billion rescheduling agreement that Poland signed last year in Vienna, under which payments of principal were scheduled to begin falling due earlier this year.

Bankers said the new pact did not reduce the interest charged on outstanding loans and required Poland to make an initial $77-million payment of principal and interest today.

In addition, further arrangements reached on short-term trade finance seek to provide Poland with cash flow support of as much as $500 million.

Western debt analysts said Poland’s move to revise its 1988 bank agreement with a new rescheduling pact was an attempt to put commercial banks on an equal footing with its Paris Club of government creditors.