Good Customers

Latin America, currently buying from the U.S. at a $3.1 billion-a-year clip, is paying for its purchases with exemplary promptness. Last week the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that in March the current draft indebtedness of Latin importers of U.S. goods fell to a nominal $99.9 million. In the seven years that the bank has kept records, that figure was matched only once before: in the Korean war month of September 1950. It was the eleventh successive monthly decline in such commercial arrears, which now amount to about a third of the total outstanding a year ago. Basic reason for Latin America's improved cash position in U.S. trade: the coffee boom.

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