KOBE -- Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and his counterparts from South Korea and Europe expressed concern Saturday that the slowing U.S. economy could deal a major blow to the economies of their respective regions, Japanese government officials said.
Miyazawa and Jin Nyum, South Korean finance and economy minister, agreed on the need to closely monitor further developments in the U.S. economy, which they said could have a great impact on Japan, South Korea and the entire Asian region.
Miyazawa expressed a similar view at a separate meeting with the representatives of the European Union, attended by Swedish Finance Minister Bosse Ringholm, Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders and European Commissioner Pedro Solbes Mira, according to the officials.