U.S. Will Stress Global Growth At G-7 Summit --- Bentsen Expects Germany To Cut Rates Further; Russia Aid to Fall Short
WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said the U.S. will emphasize the urgency of reviving the global economy at next week's summit in Tokyo, and predicted that Germany will cut interest rates again to that end.</br></br>"You've seen . . . the consensus across Europe that rates should be lowered. Frankly, I think they'll be lowered some more," Mr. Bentsen said in an interview. The German Bundesbank's policy makers meet today, but Mr. Bentsen wouldn't say if he expects an interest-rate cut that soon. Asked if the U.S. will press the Japanese at the summit to do more to stimulate its economy, the secretary replied: "I've never stopped asking."</br></br>Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who will meet with the G-7 leaders next week, will come away with far more than his predecessor, Mikhail Gorbachev, got at the London summit two years ago, Mr. Bentsen said. For instance, U.S. officials say the G-7 has agreed to open an office in Moscowo coordinate aid.</br></br>And yesterday, the directors of the International Monetary Fund, as expected, approved a $1.5 billion loan for Russia, the first under a new fund created at the urging of the G-7 to assist Russia and other formerly Communist countries.</br></br>Unable to make as much progress as they had hoped in presummit talks aimed at opening the Japanese market to imports, breaking the deadlock in the world trade talks, and getting other G-7 countries to come up with money for Russia, U.S. officials are now talking about the primacy of economic-growth issues.