US dampens euro efforts

US TREASURY Secretary Henry Paulson was aiming a shot across Europe’s bow about currency intervention, rather than Japan’s, when he warned that he opposed any such bid to alter relative currency values.

Analysts said Mr Paulson’s comment to US lawmakers on Wednesday that he was “watching the Japanese currency very, very carefully” and will talk to his Japanese counterpart next week should not be seen as a signal of unhappiness at Tokyo.

But it did appear aimed at dampening down European efforts to push discussion of the relative value of the euro and Japanese yen higher on the agenda of an approaching February 9-10 meeting in Essen, Germany, of Group of Seven finance ministers.