G-7 Nations Fail To Find Unity On Solutions --- Economic Concerns Spark Finger-Pointing But Few Handshakes

At Saturday's meeting of G-7 finance ministers and central-bank governors, U.S. officials warned that Europe and Japan must do more for world economic growth. Meanwhile, European and Japanese finance ministers continued to blame inadequacies in the world financial system itself. And policy rift...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Wall Street journal Asia
Main Author By Dagmar Aalund and Michael M. Phillips
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Victoria, Hong Kong Dow Jones & Company Inc 22.02.1999
Subjects
American dollar
Banking industry
Central banks
Economic growth
Global economy
Hedge funds
Interest rates
International finance
Monetary policy
Regulation of financial institutions
US exports
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Summary:At Saturday's meeting of G-7 finance ministers and central-bank governors, U.S. officials warned that Europe and Japan must do more for world economic growth. Meanwhile, European and Japanese finance ministers continued to blame inadequacies in the world financial system itself. And policy rifts remained apparent within Europe, between left-leaning finance ministers and monetarist central bankers. To be sure, the G-7 pushed through some minor reforms, including new rules requiring members to reveal more accurately how much foreign currency they hold in reserve. The group also backed creation of a new forum that that will discuss how best to supervise and regulate hedge funds, insurance companies, investment banks and other financial institutions that are increasingly powerful forces in moving money from country to country. But the U.S. brushed off French and German attempts to establish closer links among the dollar, yen and euro. "It is crucially important that Japan and Europe . . . move forward with domestic demand-led growth in their economies, to achieve more balanced growth among our countries, reduce the large external imbalances and support recovery in emerging-market economies," said Mr. [Robert] Rubin after the meeting ended.
ISSN:0377-9920