Geithner wants 'rebalanced' world economy: report

WASHINGTON: US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will push his G20 counterparts to "rebalance" the global economy away from US consumption, and push "fair" currency rules, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

In an interview with the newspaper, Geither said the weekend meeting of the Group of 20's finance ministers was a chance to push "our partners to put a little more flesh on the skeleton of the rebalancing commitment."

"The rest of the world wants us to save more- and that means less US demand for the rest of the world. Demand is going to have to come from other sources," he told the Journal.

The finance ministers are set to hold talks this weekend ahead of a November meeting of G-20 leaders in South Korea that comes amid grim talk of "currency wars."

Geithner has dismissed the chances of any serious conflict, but acknowledged the need for rules to better regulate exchange-rate policy.

"Right now, there is no established sense of what's fair," he told the newspaper.

The tension comes amid continued US frustration at China, accused by American officials of keeping the yuan artificially undervalued, and currency interventions by a range of other nations.

Geithner said he saw world currencies falling into three groups- major currencies, which are "roughly in alignment," emerging economies undertaking some intervention, which the United States does not oppose, and then currencies that are "undervalued by any measure," including China's.