By linking interest rate changes in one money center to those elsewhere, the Plaza agreement provided clues to turning points in bond or stock prices.

Nevertheless, it does appear that the fall in interest rates, part of the effort to bring down the dollar, helped lift the Dow industrials by more than 800 points since the Plaza agreement.

The Plaza agreement in September 1985 was the first three yards, followed last March by a Group of Five coordinated reduction in central bank rates.

THE decline started in late February 1985, but the Plaza agreement fortified the decline - and strengthened the bull market in stocks and bonds around the world.

The so-called Group of Five nations - the United States, Japan, West Germany, Britain and France - were the driving force behind the Plaza agreement.

The dollar peaked in early 1985, well before the Plaza agreement, but the intervention by central bankers and adjustment of interest rates accelerated the downward trend.

Then with the Plaza agreement of 1985, Japan settled for the cheaper dollar.

The Plaza agreement itself provides an interesting insight into the possibilities and limits of international economic collaboration.

Mr. Utsumi said today that the Plaza agreement "was very effective at the time."

The move offshore began in the 1980's, particularly after the 1985 Plaza agreement among leading industrial nations eventually led to a doubling of the yen's value against the dollar.