THE PHILIPPINES

Talks With IMF on Economic Program to Reopen: The Philippines reopens talks with the International Monetary Fund this week to try to hammer out an acceptable economic program so the IMF can resume lending to the heavily indebted country. Alone among the booming economies of Southeast Asia, the Philippines heads into 1992 with its economy stagnant or contracting, investment levels falling and its borrowing program with the IMF in limbo. The Senate went into Christmas recess without passing critical revenue measures required by the IMF to keep the government’s budget deficit within agreed bounds. But President Corazon Aquino is recalling Congress to a special session this week to approve them, declaring that the economy is heading out of recession into a period of export-led growth. Meanwhile, the Philippines signed its fourth bilateral agreement with the United States rescheduling the payment of its $267-million debt to Dec. 31, 1992, instead of July 1, 1991.