Since then, the country's foreign currency reserves have rebounded sharply and interest rates have stabilized.

When Western countries suspended foreign aid, Sharif froze the country's foreign currency reserves to prevent further capital flight, but this only worsened economic conditions.

Kurdaş was in favor of trade liberalization but there was a problem -the immense increase in imports depleted the country's foreign currency reserves.

King Emphasizes Economy The King stressed the importance of increasing the country's foreign currency reserves and maintaining the Jordanian dinar's purchasing power.

That could further erode the value of the peso, spur inflation and deplete the country's foreign currency reserves, which have fallen to $10 billion from more than $13 billion in January.

Economists fear that if strict Government controls are lifted too quickly, the ruble - with few domestic goods to back it up - would shrivel in value, and the country's foreign currency reserves would be drained.

In his presentation, at the American Enterprise Institute, Mr. Lee did not say how low the country's foreign currency reserves had dropped this month as the central bank attempted to fight off a sharp devaluation of the won.

The Soviet ruble cannot be easily converted into dollars on international markets, the country's foreign currency reserves are not large, and the Soviet Union has few products to trade to the West other than oil, vodka, furs and caviar.

The North Korean government has been overseeing the production and export of thousands of pounds of heroin and methamphetamine each month to bolster the country's foreign currency reserves, a North Korean defector told a Senate subcommittee today.