Crisis also affects Britain

Crisis also affects Britain

LONDON (Reuters): The British government might be left with a
bill of more than three billion pounds sterling used to
underwrite loans to Asian countries if the Pacific Rim nations
default on their debts, the Independent newspaper said.

Figures due to be published next month show a total of 3.2
billion sterling ($4.9 billion) in loans to be repaid by
Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, the
newspaper reported. All the loans were backed by official British
government guarantees.

More than a third of the money was spent on British weapons,
and other deals, including the 300 million stg sale of 16 Hawk
jets to Indonesia will still go ahead, the report said. Some of
the money was also used for the Pergau dam project in Malaysia.

The newspaper quoted a spokesman for the government's Export
Credit Guarantee Department as saying that even if the government
had to pay out, it would hope to recoup the money when the Asian
economy improved.