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Burma To Issue New Banknotes



(NOTE: NE WIN, LONG THE DICTATOR OF BURMA, WOULD CARRY OUT IMPORTANT 
GOVERNMENT EVENTS ON DAYS OF THE MONTH ADDING UP TO HIS LUCKY NUMBER: 9
NE WIN IS OLD BUT GIVEN THAT THE NEW BANKNOTES ARE BEING ISSUED ON THE 
27TH (2+7=9), IT MAY BE AN INDICATION THAT THE OLD MAN AIN'T GONE YET.  
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, THE NEW NOTES DIFFER FROM THE OLD 45 KYAT NOTE 
(4+5=9) AND OTHERS THAT ADDED UP TO THE OLD DICTATOR'S LUCKY NUMBER.  IT 
IS SOMETIMES HARD TO BELIEVE THAT IN 1994, BURMA IS STILL SO INFLUENCED 
BY THE SUPERSTITION OF ONE SENILE, CRUEL OLD MAN.

/* Written  9:10 am  Mar  3, 1994 by cesloane@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:bitl.seasia */
/* ---------- "Burma To Issue New Banknotes" ---------- */
Subject: Burma To Issue New Banknotes
Keywords: General financial/business news
ACategory: financial

        RANGOON, Burma (AP) -- Burma will issue banknotes in five new
denominations, Minister of Finance and Internal Revenue Brig. Gen.
Win Tin said Thursday.
        The new banknotes, in denominations of 500, 100, 50 and 20 kyats
and 50 pya (one-half kyat), will go into circulation March 27,
Armed Forces Day, Win Tin told a news conference.
        Existing notes in denominations of 200, 90, 45, 15, 10, 5, and 1
kyats and all coins will continue to serve as legal tender, he
said.
        The issuance in 1987 of banknotes in the odd denominations of
15, 45 and 90 kyats was popularly ascribed to the eccentricities of
former strongman Ne Win, who is said to regard the number nine as
lucky.
        A sudden demonetization of all large denomination notes in 1987
caused widespread dissatisfaction which turned into unrest and
contributed to political upheaval which ended Ne Win's 25-year
single-party rule. The demonetization was aimed at people who had
accumulated large amounts on the black market. The banknotes
demonetized in 1987 were not redeemable.
        At the official rate of exchange, one dollar is worth about 6.2
kyat. But on the black market it is about 120 kyats to the dollar.
        ``The new notes are issued in accordance with normal banking
practices and for easy handling in line with the market-oriented
economic system,'' said Win Tin. He said it would have no effect on
inflation.
        Last year inflation was 31.6 percent, he said. He attributed
this increase to massive expansion in trade and construction
undertaken by the government and the private sector.
        Since 1988's upheavals, Burma has been moving from a socialist
economy to a free market. However, the ruling junta has failed to
liberalize the political system to any significant extent.
        The new denomination notes, as well as the 200-kyat note issued
in 1990, carry a lion as their main motif. Other notes show Gen.
Aung San, the assassinated father of Burma's independence, and two
other patriotic heroes.
        Aung San was the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of
Burma's pro-democracy movement who has been under house arrest in
Rangoon by the junta since 1989. When American Congressman Bill
Richardson last month became the first person outside of her
immediate family to visit her, Ms. Suu Kyi sat in front of a large
banner depicting her late father.
        Win Tin said the lion motif had been adopted to break the