International Business / The Pacific

U.S. Says Japan Should Be Ready to Boost Economy: Japan needs to be “very watchful” of its economy and take further steps to stimulate growth if necessary, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said before leaving for a meeting of finance ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Kyoto, Japan. “Japan seems to be growing again. The prospects today look much better than they did quite some months ago.” He said the “need for sound [economic] policies” will be one of the chief topics for the ministerial meeting of the 18-member group. Japan’s economy is slowly emerging from more than four years of near-zero growth. The decline in the yen, record-low interest rates and government spending and other measures are all paving the way to recovery.