Washington, October 22: Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries have reportedly started talks aimed at tackling global economic imbalances and currency tensions.
Continuing tensions over exchange rates are likely to dominate the Friday talks held in Gyeongju in South Korea ahead of the broader G20 meeting also held on Friday.
Prior to the meeting, Japan’s Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters that the G7 nations from North America, Western Europe and Japan were to discuss “the overall global economy.”
The Japanese minister added that officials will just have to “put (our) heads together.”
Noda denied that both meetings are to discuss currency regimes, although Japan will brief other countries about its actions to prevent the potentially appreciation of the yen against the dollar.
“We will discuss how to stabilize and enhance the international currency order. It’s going to be a bigger picture debate,” he went on to say.
“We must share the view that competitive moves to devalue currency rates, as history shows, would be negative for the world economy,” he further explained.
Reports indicate that the G20 will try to find a coordinated path out of the financial crisis that has gripped the United States, Europe and many Asian countries over the past three years.
The G7 was formed in 1976 and consists of the US, Japan, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Canada. Although China is not part of the group, analysts say the country’s participation would be significant as it stands as one of the central protagonists in the ongoing global dispute over currency values.
—Agencies