Global economic recovery under way: Mer

PARIS, Jan 16 (AFP) – A global economic recovery is now under way, albeit plagued by exchange rate imbalances, French Finance Minister Francis Mer said Friday.

“The world recovery is well under way, even if certain imbalances remain,” Mer told a press conference here.

Noting a meeting next month in the United States of finance chiefs from the Group of Seven nations, he said “the priority at the international level is to prolong this recovery movement through an orderly absorption of these imbalances, which are clearly apparent at the exchange rate level.”

“The G7 must help us through a shared analysis and in facilitating the application of appropriate policies in each of the major zones,” he said.

He appealed to the United States to trim its current account and budget deficits and said that in Japan “the economic horizon at last seems clearer.”He again pledged to reduce the French public deficit, a task he described as “imperative.”

“We will respect our commitments in 2004 and 2005,” he vowed.

As a member of the eurozone, France is bound to keep its annual public deficit under three percent of output. It is on track to breach the ceiling for the third year in a row.

A summit meeting of the G7 – grouping Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States – is scheduled February 6-7 in Boca Raton, Florida.

© AFP

                                Subject: France news