The interest-rate reductions would be made sufficient to maintain the overall level of aggregate expenditures roughly unchanged.

At the same time, the fund urged Germany to continue interest-rate reductions it has made this year.

The beige book's gloomy picture may cause even further interest-rate reductions this fall, since the demand for business loans remains weak.

The final results, however, show that principal reduction accounts for 41 percent of the renegotiated debt, interest-rate reductions 47 percent and new money only 12 percent.

A New Idea One new idea in the Venezuelan proposal is an option for temporary - but very large - interest-rate reductions on existing debt.

After a slew of European interest-rate reductions, the Bank of England ordered a larger-than-expected cut in a key rate today, half a percentage point, to 6.75 percent.

Analysts said the German interest-rate reductions might not be enough to keep the dollar from falling further against the mark.

But their statement after the meeting only reaffirmed earlier commitments to assure the smooth operation of the world economy and praised last week's coordinated interest-rate reductions.

But with a tax cut and with time for the interest-rate reductions to have an effect, I think we'll see an improvement in six to nine months.

The report concludes: "All of the gains in housing-purchasing power as a result of interest-rate reductions in the current market probably have been made.