Word: foreign
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...reality, voted a year ago to begin "steps to ensure the ruble's convertibility" by the year 2000. So Sovietologists in the West were caught by surprise last week when Gosbank announced that it would devalue the Soviet currency 90% for transactions that do not involve imports or exports. Foreign visitors will get much more bang for their buck: 6.26 rubles per dollar. But Soviet citizens traveling abroad will receive a paltry 16 cents per ruble instead of the official $1.60, which will seriously hamper their ability to go on shopping trips abroad for scarce consumer goods...
Western visitors will not reap many bargains from last week's step, which in practical terms will apply to a small portion of transactions. Tourists are generally asked to pay in foreign currency for lodging, transit and food. And as Soviet citizens know painfully well, the ruble is virtually worthless in the domestic economy. Moscow cabbies speed past hapless hailers unless they hold up something more enticing: a greenback or a pack of Marlboro cigarettes...
...Grant Poland most-favored-nation status, as well as encourage trade policies that would provide hard currency from increased exports rather than through excessive foreign borrowing...
...Include Poland in the Brady Plan, which provides for the long-term restructuring of foreign loans...
Such advice has often placed Sachs in a cross fire between U.S. bankers, who oppose large-scale debt forgiveness, and populist foreign critics, who resent his calls for fiscal austerity. Walter Wriston, the former chairman of Citicorp, whose Citibank unit has more than $8 billion in outstanding Latin American loans, calls Sachs "a paid flack for the countries of Latin America." Wriston argues that widespread loan write-offs would prevent Latin countries from receiving new credit. At the same time, Julio Bravo, finance secretary of the Bolivian Worker's Central Union, charges that as a result of Sachs' advice, "salaries...