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G7 to mention stable currencies, Miyazawa says

WASHINGTON: Japan's Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said finance officials of the Group of Seven industrial nations were likely to mention the need for stable currencies in a statement expected to be issued on Saturday.

Miyazawa and Bank of Japan Governor Masaru Hayami met US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Saturday morning ahead of a meeting of the G7 finance ministers and central bankers.

Miyazawa spoke briefly with reporters as he headed for the G7 gathering taking which takes place on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meetings.

Asked whether he discussed the yen's strength with Summers, Miyazawa responded: "We discussed that we all should keep paying attention to currency movements."

Miyazawa said he and Summers did not talk about specific issues such as the Bank of Japan's monetary policy. Asked whether the two discussed a sharp drop of stock prices on Wall Street on Friday, Miyazawa told reporters Summers had reiterated that the US economy remained sound.

A US Treasury spokeswoman told reporters after the meeting that Summers and Miyazawa had agreed to "cooperate so as to make the G7 meetings constructive and fruitful." She declined to comment further.

The G7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.-Reuters