11/14 11:01 Argentine Defaults on World Bank Loan, TodoNoticias Reports By Helen Murphy

Buenos Aires, Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Argentina defaulted on an $805 million loan payment to the World Bank, TodoNoticias television reported.

Missing the loan payment would prompt a ban on new World Bank financing intended to aid impoverished Argentines and help pull the economy from a four-year recession. A loan default cuts South America's second-largest country off from the few available credits for financing exports and reviving the economy.

Argentina defaulted on $95 billion of bonds in December and it owes $2.4 billion, or a quarter of its $9.7 billion of reserves, to the IMF, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank through year-end, according to the Economy Ministry. TodoNoticias said the government would pay the World Bank $77 million in interest.

Cabinet Chief Alfredo Atanasof said early today the government hadn't decided whether to meet payments on the loan.

-- Anonymous, November 14, 2002