Bush urged to signal a 20%....

dollar devaluation by Friday when the G-7 and the International Monetary Fund meet in Washington.

Dow Jones News Services

LONDON (Dow Jones)--U.S. President George Bush is being urged to signal a dollar devaluation of up to 20% to rebalance the global economy ahead of Friday's Group of Seven and International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, the U.K.'s The Business newspaper reported.

Senior U.S. administration officials in Washington have over the past few days tried to influence the White House and U.S. Treasury to put pressure on the G7 to agree to a dollar depreciation in its final statement, the newspaper said.

Recent data have shown the U.S. current account and trade deficits running at record levels, and economists have said a dollar depreciation is needed to rein these in.

The euro was quoted at $1.2260 in late New York trade Friday, compared with $1.2273 on Thursday. The dollar was fetching Y110.64 versus Y110.63, and CHF1.2624 versus CHF1.2598. The pound was trading at $1.8041, up from $1.7982.

The G7 will also call on the world's oil producers to take further action to bring down prices, The Sunday Times reported. Crude oil reached almost $49 a barrel in New York Friday, amid continued concerns that high energy costs will sap global growth.

Spurring economic growth will be high on the agenda at the meetings of G7 finance ministers and central bankers next week, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said Friday.

"The promotion of economic freedom, opportunity and growth throughout the world will be a key topic," he said in a statement in New York City.

G7 officials meeting in Washington next week will be representing Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. Officials from China will also be present.  

What the G7 will talk about in Washington, including gold
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Auszug:

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The masters of the world economy head to Washington this week for a historic gathering...

Foreign exchange will be on the menu when China's finance minister and central bank chief dine with the full-time G7 members on Friday evening after an historic invitation from U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Financial markets are still betting on a modest revaluation in China's yuan in the next 12 months. Snow also said on Wednesday he planned to use the occasion to press Beijing anew to loosen its currency's peg against the dollar.

The yuan is pegged in a narrow band around 8.28 against the dollar and U.S. manufactures complain this makes Chinese exports unfairly cheap. It also encourages other Asian nations, including Japan, to intervene massively in foreign exchange markets to hold their own currencies down against the yuan to protect their exports.

In turn, U.S. consumers have been avid purchasers of foreign goods, driving the country's current account and trade deficits to record levels, which the International Monetary Fund has been warning for years are unsustainable and may trigger a disastrous dollar collapse.

.....The United States and Britain have been pushing hard for 100 percent debt forgiveness for the world's poorest nations in tacit recognition that the 1996 Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative has not eased poverty enough.

Gordon Brown, Britain's finance minister, has announced the United Kingdom will spend an extra 100 million pounds ($180.6 million) a year on debt relief to help poor countries repay money owed to the World Bank and IMF.

He plans to call on other nations during the IMF/World Bank meeting to do the same and to also press for IMF gold reserves to be revalued to release cash for debt relief. Under a 1971 agreement, the fund's massive bullion deposits are valued at $40 per ounce or about 10 percent of their market value.

Ob eine organisierte Dollarabwertung oder ein verheerender Zusammenbruch von dem US-$, spielt keine Rolle. Auf das Gold zu setzen ist ein guter Weg um sich davor zu schützen und um seine Nettokaufkraft zu erhalten, während sich diese Ereignisse entwickeln.  

Die sieben führenden Industrieländer haben sich zu einem hundertprozentigen Schuldenerlass für die ärmsten Länder der Welt bereit erklärt. Der britische Schatzmeister Gordon Brown bezeichnete die Vereinbarung auf dem G-7-Finanzministertreffen in London als historisch: „Es ist das erste Mal, dass so etwas umfassendes wie ein hundertprozentiger Schuldenerlass in einem G-7-Kommunique erwähnt wird“, betonte er.

Wie viel Geld den Entwicklungsländern tatsächlich erlassen wird, soll allerdings von Fall zu Fall entschieden werden. Als Beurteilungskriterien werden in der Abschlusserklärung unter anderem das Vorhandensein solider und transparenter Institutionen und die Ausgabenpolitik des jeweiligen Staates genannt.
 

Das Ziel Großbritanniens, die Zahlungen an die armen Länder um insgesamt 50 Milliarden Dollar (38 Milliarden Euro) zu erhöhen, scheiterte vorerst am Streit um das Finanzierungsinstrument, genannt International Finance Facility (IFF).
US-Finanzstaatssekretär John Taylor sagte, er sei nicht mit den amerikanischen Haushaltsregeln vereinbar. Beschlossen wurde daher vorerst nur, vor dem Gipfel der Staats- und Regierungschefs der G-7-Länder mit dem russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin neben dem IFF weitere Finanzierungsinstrumente zu prüfen.