Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill agreed Saturday to work toward sustainable global growth to prevent a world economic crisis in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, a Japanese Finance Ministry official said.
Briefing each other on actions taken by the two nations to prop up their economies, O'Neill expressed understanding for Japan's yen-selling interventions, effectively tolerating them, the Japanese official and a U.S. Treasury spokeswoman said.
But he implicitly urged Japan to take further steps to buttress its economy, while explaining that U.S. measures are expected to help its economy recover in the middle of 2002. The two also agreed to block international movements of money related to terrorists.
They met shortly before the start of a meeting of the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors. Restoring sustainable economic growth and blocking funds to terror groups are also major agenda items for top financial officials of the G7 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.S.