Prospectus Supplement
dated December 24, 1997 to:
PUTNAM VARIABLE TRUST
Prospectuses dated April 30, 1997 and November 20, 1997
Effective December 24, 1997, the following text will follow
the penultimate paragraph of the section entitled "Putnam Vt
Global Growth Fund"
Swaps Agreement
The fund may enter into other types of "over-the-counter"
transactions with broker-dealers or other financial
institutions, in which its investment return will depend on
the change in value of a specified security or index. The
fund would typically receive from the counterparty the
amount of any increase, and pay to the counterparty the
amount of any decrease, in the value of the underlying
security or index. The contracts would thus, absent the
failure of the counterparty to complete its obligations,
provide to the fund approximately the same return as it
would have realized if it had owned the security or index
directly.
The fund's ability to realize a profit from such
transactions will depend on the ability of the financial
institutions with which it enters into the transactions to
meet their obligations to the fund. Under certain
circumstances, suitable transactions may not be available to
the fund, or the fund may be unable to close out its
position under such transactions at the same times, or at
the same prices, as if it had purchased comparable publicly
traded securities.
39537 12/97
216252YF
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