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SIGNATURE PETER FORTNER
TITLE ASSISTANT TREASURER
WARNING: THE EDGAR SYSTEM ENCOUNTERED ERROR(S) WHILE PROCESSING THIS SCHEDULE.
<TABLE> <S> <C>
<ARTICLE> 6
<CIK> 0000790500
<NAME> THE FIRST AUSTRALIA PRIME INCOME FUND, INC.
<S> <C>
<PERIOD-TYPE> YEAR
<FISCAL-YEAR-END> Oct-31-1999
<PERIOD-END> Oct-31-1999
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<INVESTMENTS-AT-VALUE> 2,247,410,394
<RECEIVABLES> 69,289,254
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</TABLE>
Report of Independent Accountants
To the Shareholders and Board of Directors
of The First Australia Prime Income Fund,
Inc.
In planning and performing our audit of the
financial statements of The First Australia
Prime Income Fund, Inc. (the "Fund") for the
year ended October 31, 1999, we considered
its internal control, including control
activities for safeguarding securities, in
order to determine our auditing procedures
for the purpose of expressing our opinion on
the financial statements and to comply with
the requirements of Form N-SAR, not to
provide assurance on internal control.
The management of the Fund is responsible for
establishing and maintaining internal
control. In fulfilling this responsibility,
estimates and judgments by management are
required to assess the expected benefits and
related costs of controls. Generally,
controls that are relevant to an audit
pertain to the entity's objective of
preparing financial statements for external
purposes that are fairly presented in
conformity with generally accepted accounting
principles. Those controls include the
safeguarding of assets against unauthorized
acquisition, use or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in internal
control, errors or fraud may occur and not be
detected. Also, projection of any evaluation
of internal control to future periods is
subject to the risk that controls may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions
or that the effectiveness of their design and
operation may deteriorate.
Our consideration of internal control would
not necessarily disclose all matters in
internal control that might be material
weaknesses under standards established by the
American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants. A material weakness is a
condition in which the design or operation of
one or more of the internal control
components does not reduce to a relatively
low level the risk that misstatements caused
by error or fraud in amounts that would be
material in relation to the financial
statements being audited may occur and not be
detected within a timely period by employees
in the normal course of performing their
assigned functions. However, we noted no
matters involving internal control and its
operation, including controls for
safeguarding securities, that we consider to
be material weaknesses as defined above as of
October 31, 1999.
This report is intended solely for the
information and use of the Board of
Directors, management and the Securities and
Exchange Commission and is not intended to be
and should not be used by anyone other than
these specified parties.
December 14, 1999
