Business Notes Latin

U.S. Treasury Secretary James Baker six months ago unveiled a bold plan to rescue Latin American debtor countries. Speaking at the annual meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Baker called for $29 billion in new loans to these beleaguered borrowers. He hoped that about $20 billion would come from commercial banks; the World Bank would provide most of the remaining $9 billion.

Now the World Bank is accelerating its lending to meet the Treasury Secretary's goal. Last week the bank said it expected that by the end of June it will approve $2.8 billion in loans to six Latin American nations, including Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador and Mexico. Some $1 billion is earmarked for Mexico, $400 million of which will be used to rebuild the structures destroyed by last September's earthquake. Colombia will receive $176 million for irrigation and rural transport. The bank's actions cap a period of record lending. For the fiscal year that ends in June, World Bank loans to Latin American countries are expected to reach an all-time high of $4.5 billion, up 22% from the 1985 level.

The new credit will hardly solve the ongoing crisis. Latin American nations remain saddled with a total of $360 bil- lion in foreign loans, and the World Bank estimates that total Third World debt will pass the $1 trillion mark by year's end.