FINANCE MINISTERS AGREE ON NEED FOR STABILITY
  Finance ministers from seven major
  industrialized nations agreed on the need to stabilize
  currencies at current levels but said more action was needed to
  reduce trade imbalances and sustain economic growth.
      In a communique issued after a four-hour meeting at the
  U.S. Treasury that ended last night, the ministers said the
  value of the dollar and other currencies was basically correct
  now, and they welcomed new measures planned by the Japanese to
  boost their economy.
      West German Finance Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg called it
  a "good meeting" and in brief remarks exchanged with reporters
  other ministers seemed pleased with its outcome.
      Shortly after the communique was issued and just as foreign
  exchange trading opened in Tokyo, the Bank of Japan intervened
  again to prevent the yen rising too quickly.
      The communique said, "The ministers and governors reaffirmed
  the commitment to the cooperative approach agreed at the recent
  Paris meeting. They agreed, however, that further actions will
  be essential to resist rising protectionist pressures, sustain
  global economic expansion and reduce trade imbalances."
      It welcomed the plans set this week by the Japan's ruling
  Liberal Democratic Party to stimulate its economy with what the
  communique termed "extraordinary and urgent measures" including
  an "unprecedented front-end loading of public works
  expenditures."
      The meeting of the so-called Group of Seven brought
  together ministers and central bank governors of the seven
  major industrial democracies, the United States, Japan, West
  Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.
      The communique said the ministers reaffirmed the commitment
  on cooperation reached in a meeting on February 22 in Paris
  when they had agreed to stabilize foreign exchange rates at the
  then-current levels.
      In the weeks that followed, the dollar continued to fall
  against the Japanese yen despite massive dollar purchases by
  the Bank of Japan and other central banks and is now trading at
  around postwar lows.
      Japan has come under growing criticism from both the United
  States and European countries for its only modest efforts to
  open its markets to outside competition and to reduce its
  exports.
      The communique said Japan affirmed its intention to open
  domestic markets to foreign goods and services but did not
  elaborate.
      It said the officials "reaffirmed the view that around
  current levels their currencies are within ranges broadly
  consistent with economic fundamentals and the basic policy
  intentions outlined at the Louvre meeting."
  

