G7 finance ministers and central bank chiefs are set to broach currency problems during a regular meeting of the club of industrialised nations in London on Feb. 4-5, at a time of dollar weakness and record U.S. deficits. Following is a snapshot of policymakers' recent comments in the runnup to the G7 London meeting.
U.S TREASURY SECRETARY JOHN SNOW
"The (U.S.) current account deficit ... basically reflects differential growth rates between the United States and our trading partners," Snow said, and if Europe and Japan grew faster they would buy more U.S.-made goods.
"We acknowledge that we have a responsibility to reduce our deficit," Snow said, adding that the White House has pledged to cut its budget deficit in half by 2009. "I think we're doing the things that we need to be doing and this is a shared responsibility with the trading partners of the world."
YU YONGDING, ECONOMIST AT CHINESE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
The time is ripe for China to move gradually toward a more flexible exchange rate regime. "Now is the time for China to make a move," Yu said. Yu is a member of the monetary policy committee of the People's Bank of China but stressed these were his personal views and did not reflect either the Chinese government's or central bank policy.