U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday urged finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) industrial countries to act “promptly to restore health to the global economy,” the department said in a statement. Geithner spoke earlier on Monday to “a collective group of G7 finance ministers via conference call” ahead of an upcoming meeting in Italy, which starts Friday. “His outreach underscored the imperative of all countries acting promptly to restore health to the global economy and financial sectors,” the statement said. “He looks forward to further discussions on this topic with G7 ministers in Rome this weekend.” Geithner will attend the gathering of top finance officials and central-bank chiefs, a meeting that normally plays a key role in economic coordination among the major industrialized countries. The G7 is comprised by the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Canada. The Treasury also said Geithner and his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, spoke for a second time in a week and agreed on a need for “strong cooperation” on economic issues. In a telephone conversation on Sunday, the two finance chiefs “agreed that strong cooperation on macroeconomic, financial, and regulatory matters was an essential part of the U.S. relationship with China and that it was important to sustain close dialogue, particularly at this time of global financial turmoil,” the department said in a separate statement. Last week, Geithner and Wang spoke by telephone and agreed on the need to continue high-level talks on economic issues.
