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		Home Page Mortgage News You Can Use G-7 finance chiefs to consider currencies, deficits Friday February 6, 1:16 am ET By Glenn Somerville BOCA RATON, Fla, Feb 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow and fellow finance chiefs from wealthy nations were to gather in luxury on Friday to mull how to boost global expansion while keeping a lid on tensions among themselves. The first meeting this year of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers -- which opens formally on Friday with a dinner and wraps up late on Saturday with a closing statement -- will play out against a backdrop of rising worries over the slumping value of the U.S. dollar. Europe, concerned that its recovery may be jeopardized by a soaring euro that hurts exports, wants to highlight record U.S. trade and budget deficits, which it feels create imbalances throughout the global economy. Japan seeks a tacit endorsement of its practice of intervening in currency markets to keep the yen from rising and thus hurting its exports and said beforehand it will tell G7 partners it plans to keep on doing so. There is enough divergence among the G7 members -- the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- that no substantive deal on slowing the dollar's decline is likely. Snow earlier this week again reiterated his currency mantra, telling a congressional panel the Bush administration supports a strong dollar -- carefully adding that its value is best set in competitive markets. The dollar has been punished by those markets in recent months and over the past two years has fallen some 29 percent against the euro, 20 percent against the yen and about 20 percent against the British pound. ALL ENGINES FIRING Instead, U.S. officials have said they want to talk about strategies to boost global growth, so the United States would no longer be the sole source of consumer demand. "The agenda for growth, which is a very important initiative launched in Dubai back in September, will be the focus of the policy discussions at the G7 meetings," Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor said this week. That document committed each country to take steps to spur growth, from pension reforms to more open labor markets. Even if there is little or no change in the Dubai communique's call for "more flexibility in exchange rates" -- which markets have come to believe is the most likely outcome -- the closing statement on Saturday has a range of topics to report upon. At their dinner on Friday, the ministers were scheduled to discuss ways to further choke off the access of groups that sponsor terror to the world's banking system. The United States wants other G7 members to back its proposal to increase the number of countries that agree to be checked annually by outside experts to make sure their financial systems are secure from such groups. Another topic they were to touch on at the plush 80-year-old resort was how to encourage development in emerging economies. Before the formal meeting on Saturday -- in the tightly secured Spanish mission-style hotel -- G7 participants will hear a presentation from an Iraqi delegation about efforts to rebuild its ravaged economy. TALKS ON SIDELINES Snow was to hold one-on-one meetings on Friday with British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown at noon EST (1700 GMT), followed by European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and finance ministers from Canada, Germany and France. He will meet with the Japanese and Iraqi representatives early on Saturday. Trichet said again on Thursday the ECB was "concern(ed) about exaggerated exchange rate movements" but emphasized he was not foreshadowing his expectations for the G7 meeting. With the United States headed into presidential elections in November, Bush administration officials are enjoying the benefits to the U.S. economy from a declining dollar, which already has begun to show up in increased manufacturing. Snow has avoided saying so directly, but on Thursday Federal Reserve Gov. Ben Bernanke underlined an official feeling that the dollar's decline was a positive development that posed no threat to U.S. interests. "The dollar has come down and I think that will pass through over time to a strengthening of our export markets and will help us recover some of this trade deficit that we have been facing ... (but) I think that its direct impact on inflation is going to be modest," Bernanke told a group of investment professionals in South Carolina.   Back to Original Article: Mortgage News You Can Use   Continue with: Mortgage rates don't move much Treasuries Fall on Fed Gov's Optimism Rising rates not all bad for investors AP poll shows drop in consumer confidence Tokyo stocks end down; dollar up vs. yen Treasuries Up, Job Famine Keep Rates Lean France's Mer says G7 must alter message on currency US again outshines euro zone in key OECD indicator Fannie, Freddie to Lose Free Advances From Fed Unemployment Rate Falls to 5.6 Percent Much of World Skeptical of Bush's Budget U.S. Adds 112,000 Jobs, Less Than Expected; Unemployment Is 5.6 Percent Mortgage rates increase again Retailers report robust January sales Interest Rise Good News for Landlords? 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