Finance chiefs from the Group of Seven economic powers on Saturday vowed to fix global economic imbalances with "vigorous" actions, from deficit reduction to reform, and guard world growth from perils like higher oil. At the close of their meeting in Washington, the G7 finance ministers and central bankers said economic growth looked healthy even in the face of costlier energy. "The global expansion has remained robust, and the outlook continues to point to solid growth for 2005," the officials said in a statement following their meeting. They said tame inflation, favorable financing conditions and "appropriate" monetary policies in their regions gave reason to hope for continued solid growth. "But challenges remain. Higher oil prices are a headwind, and the expansion is less balanced than before," the ministers said. "We welcome efforts to improve oil market data, increase medium-term energy supply and efficiency." The officials from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada failed to reach a deal on how to help the world's poorest nations and sidestepped an issue topmost in many policy-makers' minds: China's currency peg. Instead they repeated wording first adopted in February 2004 urging "more flexibility" for exchange rates in countries where flexibility is lacking, a statement that has been taken as aimed squarely at China.
