Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alex who wrote (47393)	1/23/2000 7:20:00 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116791

Markets wait to pounce on Japan after G7 drubbing Financial markets are waiting to pounce on Japan after it emerged from a drubbing at the hands of the United States in the latest Group of Seven bout, analysts said Sunday. Despite initial signs to the contrary, Japan failed to get backing from the world's most powerful nations for its battle to hold down the value of the yen against the dollar, they said. Instead, the G7 backed up the United States' call for more balanced growth in the world, especially from sluggish Japan where the answer was not the currency but structural reform. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, frustrated that the world has been overly reliant on stellar US growth demanded its old sparring partner bow to demands for deregulation. Japan had committed itself to "domestic-demand-led growth and avoiding deflationary pressures", Summers told a news conference after Saturday's G7 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers. "What will be most important going forward is the way in which those commitments are carried through." In a statement after the one-day meeting of finance ministers and central bankers, the G7 paid ritualistic observance to Japan's insistence the strong yen is choking off exports and endangering its stop-start economic recovery. But diplomats indicated that references to the yen were mere lip-service, and seized on a miniscule change of wording from last September's G7 statement as speaking volumes. Last time round the finance chiefs said they "shared Japan's concern about the potential impact of the yen's appreciation for the Japanese economy and the world economy". This time, in an extraordinary display at the German and Italian press conferences following the meeting, officials declaimed like actors in reading out the relevant portion of text to indicate the change of emphasis. The yen was of a matter of "THEIR concern, which we share", read German deputy finance minister Caio Koch-Weser. "Although the statement is mentioning the yen, we don't think there are risks," said his boss, Hans Eichel, for good measure. "We didn't discuss any concerted intervention," added Italian Finance Minister Giuliano Amato, who also homed in on the yen passage highlighted by the Germans. voila.co.uk