Finance Minister Jim FlahertyGraham Hughes
Canada called Monday for more movement in some Asian currencies and said it expected to discuss currency disorder in G7, G8 and G20 meetings that it will host or chair this year.
Answering France's call for this year's big finance meetings to confront instability in the foreign exchange markets, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said: "Yes, I expect that this will be a topic of discussion at G7, G8, G20 meetings."
He will chair a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations on Feb. 5-6 in Iqaluit. Canada will also host G8 and G20 summits in June.
European countries and others with free-floating currencies have complained that, with China keeping its yuan artificially cheap, their currencies are becoming too expensive and making it difficult for their companies to compete.
Mr. Flaherty told reporters in Winnipeg that the currency issue was not new.
"This is an issue certainly that I've been dealing with for four years now," he said. "There was more movement in some of the Asian currencies before the economic crisis, less movement during the economic crisis. Ultimately, we'd like to see more movement."
The Conservative minister said he would also keep reform of financial systems at the fore at the G7 meeting in Iqaluit and at the G20 summit in Toronto in June.
"This is a persisting major concern," he said, saying it was important in order to try to avoid crises in the future. "We have to make sure we don't drop the ball here."
A major part of the reform is to have mutual assessments around the world of the performance of financial systems, he said.
Countries have shown differences of opinion over how they limit executive compensation to prevent undue risk-taking, he said.
He added that Canada backs the guidelines established by the Financial Stability Board that reports to the G20 and said he was satisfied Canadian financial institutions were trying to follow those principles.
Mr. Flaherty said he still has concerns about Canada establishing a firm economic recovery, especially in light of recent employment numbers.
"I'm pleased to see fairly good consumer confidence in Canada, fairly good business confidence in Canada. (I'm) concerned about the employment numbers, of course," he said.
"(This is) all the more reason to persist with the stimulus we're providing to the economy."
Employers unexpectedly cut 2,600 jobs in December after hefty hiring in November, Statistics Canada reported Friday, signalling that the economic revival will be sluggish.
Mr. Flaherty said that Canada is in a relatively good position compared to many other advanced nations, and that he was concerned about the pace of the U.S. recovery.