ECONOMY

Japan, Germany Urged to Cut Interest Rates: Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen called on the two countries to cut their interest rates to help prop up the battered dollar. “Obviously, lower interest rates would be of help,” Bentsen told reporters ahead of the summit of leading industrial nations that will convene July 8 through 10 in Naples, Italy. Lower rates would make those nations’ currencies less lucrative to hold and thus could lure investors back to the dollar. It was the first time Bentsen publicly called on those two nations to cut interest rates since the dollar’s rout began this month. His comments heightened speculation that leaders of major industrial nations at the summit would try to hatch a joint strategy involving interest rate cuts overseas and rate increases in the United States to underpin the dollar.