ECONOMY

G-7 Concerned About World Economic Slowdown: Senior officials from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are worried about the world economic slowdown but agreed that global recession is not around the corner. Horst Koehler, German state secretary for the Finance Ministry, told reporters that “immense topics” had been discussed. The deputy finance ministers held three days of confidential talks in a secluded hotel in a town near Frankfurt. The world economy and the need for policies to strengthen growth as well as the multibillion-dollar debts of the former Soviet Union headed the list, he said after the final session. G-7 includes the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Canada and Italy.