Bid to Strengthen Dollar Over, U.S. Says

A two-year international effort to strengthen the dollar is over, U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin said Saturday. But he continued to express concerns over economic problems in Europe and Japan that could push the dollar’s value still higher.

With “major misalignments” among the U.S. dollar, the Japanese yen and the German mark corrected, from now on, “exchange rates should reflect economic fundamentals,” Rubin and the finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations said in a statement following their daylong meeting.

Traders and analysts said the ministers’ statement isn’t likely to halt the dollar’s rise as long as the Japanese economy remains weak, and Japanese and German interest rates remain comparatively low.

Although Rubin drove the dollar down Friday when he first signaled a policy change, it recovered much of its loss by the end of trading. Now, at least for the time being, the administration is willing to let the dollar seek its own level.