Senior officials from the Group of Seven (G-7) countries will meet next week to decide an agenda for the bodys June summit scheduled to be held in Venice Japanese officials said. The meeting will provide senior government officials with their first chance to discuss the recent sharp drop of the dollar although the main focus of the gathering is longer term they said. Deputy Finance Ministers including Japanese Vice-Finance Minister Toyoo Gyohten will attend. The meeting will be held in Italy they said but gave no other details. The leaders of the G-7 the United States Britain Canada France Italy Japan and West Germany are expected to discuss ways of improving economic policy coordination in Venice. The hope is that increased coordination will help reduce the huge imbalances in world trade and calm volatile currency markets. But economists say the strategy has so far not worked. Japanese officials admitted there is little more they can do on their own to stem the dollar decline which last week saw the currency plunge to a post-war low below 140 yen. The officials said they expected sentiment against the dollar to change soon once the U.S. Trade deficit starts to fall and the Japanese surplus begins to shrink. We have already seen some signs of improvement (in the trade picture) but the market does not appreciate it yet one said. Last weeks passage of the Japanese government budget by parliaments Lower House also paves the way for Tokyo to take additional action to stimulate its sagging economy and boost imports the officials said.
G-7 OFFICIALS TO DECIDE ON SUMMIT AGENDA