Japan must use public funds to help banks-Rubin
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 4 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin urged Japan on Friday to move quickly to shore up its weak banking sector and boost domestic demand, saying the entire world was expecting Tokyo to take swift action.
''I emphasized the importance of implementing strong actions to strengthen the banking system and restore confidence,'' Rubin told a news briefing after a 90-minute closed-door meeting with his Japanese counterpart Kiichi Miyazawa.
''This requires, in our view, using sufficient public funds aggressively and appropriately to strengthen weak but viable banks, accompanied by an accelerated disclosure of troubled assets, improved financial disclosure, and a strengthening of ...the regulatory structure,'' he added.
He noted that economic policies and performance in both the United States and Japan, the world's two largest economies, were of ''enormous importance to the rest of the world.''
''It is urgent that Japan acts quickly to implement fiscal measures that provide...substantial and sustained stimulus to the Japanese economy,'' he said.
''Japan is one of the great economic success stories of the past 50 years,'' he continued. ''The world needs Japan to rise to the economic challenge.''
Rubin reiterated it was crucial that the U.S. Congress approves the administration's request to provide some $18 billion in extra funding for the International Monetary Fund to help guard against future economic crisis in the world that could adversely affect the United States.
''I still think that the probability of a major crisis that can have an effect on the United States is low...but not non-existent,'' he said.
Rubin repeated his forecast that he expected the U.S. economy to continue on a path of ''solid growth and low inflation''. |
