By Denny Gulino

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Previewing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s
trip next week to India and G7 and IMF meetings in Tokyo, a senior
Department official said global growth will be the focus as Europe makes
progress with new crisis tools and China manages structural change
important to the United States.

The official, briefing reporters, said Geithner will be
highlighting to his counterparts, as reflected in the Friday’s U.S. jobs
report, what will be welcome news the U.S. is contributing to growth and
has a policy to reduce its deficit over time, without a sharp withdrawal
of government spending. The official did not refer to the impending
“fiscal cliff” set of year-end circumstances that threatens exactly that
kind of withdrawal.

“We’re at a place in the global recovery where we really need all
the major economies to provide support for the recovery, a balanced
recovery,” the official said.

That is why Europe needs to continue to “navigate forward” through
financial challenges, the official continued, while China supports
global growth and “advances their agenda of structural transformation.”

As important as China’s adjustments are for its own economy, it is
also “very important in creating a balanced economic relationship with
greater opportunities for U.S. workers and exporters, with a more level
playing field, an economy that operates according to international
standards on intellectual property and an economy that has an exchange
rate that is based on market determination,” the official said.

The U.S. is “seeing a very substantial shift” by China toward a
flexible exchange rate, the official added, while the shift to a
consumption-based economy instead of exports is not yet sufficient.

Geithner travels to India Tuesday along with Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke to participate in the third annual meeting of the
U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership that had been postponed
earlier. Geithner goes on to Mumbai, the financial center, for meetings
with business executives.

Later in the week Geithner moves on to Tokyo for Friday’s Group of
Seven and the weekend IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings.

“The discussion in the G7 will focus very much on global growth
prospects and what each of the members of the G7 can do to support
growth here in our own economy and of course in the global economy more
generally,” the official said.

In Europe, “They have taken steps to create tools that we believe
put them in a much stronger position to reduce tail risk and to continue
to move forward on reforms” while maintaining “sustainable market
financing,” the official said.

As an example of collaborative growth efforts, “In recent weeks
we’ve seen action on the part of the Federal Reserve, the ECB, the Bank
of Japan all aimed at providing liquidity,” the official said. Helping
is the plan in the U.S. to slow the growth of the deficit by $4 trillion
while “leaving room for U.S. investment in competitiveness.”

** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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