Mexico Finances

Negotiators for Mexico and a consortium of commercial banks said Saturday that they are "close to agreement in principle" on a new financing package for that cash-strapped country that is likely to exceed $3 billion. Banking industry officials said the outlines of the accord probably would be completed late this coming week. Full details of the package are not likely to be worked out for several weeks after that.

President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has staked his reputation on his government's ability to negotiate a substantial reduction in Mexico's $102-billion foreign debt, and officials say he must do so by the end of July, when an anti-inflation package of wage and price controls expires.

With its dollar reserves at an all-time high, the government of Mexico unexpectedly finds itself with an embarrassment of riches that it has yet to decide how to spend. The Bank of Mexico, the country's central bank, is bulging with at least $15 billion in reserves, about five times the level of a year ago, and the money would seem to be the answer to some of Mexico's serious economic problems.

The government announced a sharp 22% devaluation of the peso Monday, the first of a series of sweeping measures expected to be put in place to shore up the nation's faltering economy. The Bank of Mexico, the nation's central bank, issued a one-paragraph statement announcing that the controlled rate of the peso was adjusted to 2,200 pesos to the dollar. It had traded at 1,796.9 to 1,805.2 on Friday. "As part of a cooperative program between the government and the worker . . .