Ireland's situation is "under control" and there is "no parallel" to Greece and its debt crisis, Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs meetings of euro-region finance ministers, said today.
Mr Juncker's comments came as Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan was set to attend the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington.
Irish bond yields remain high and international tensions are growing over countries use of their currency to gain economic advantage and doubts for the prospects of effective new rules for banking.
At 3,23pm, yields on 10-year Irish government bonds were 6.487 per cent. Last month, they hit a high of more than 6.7 per cent as concerns mounted over the country's sovereign debt crisis.
The Group of 20 finance ministers scheduled a working breakfast on the sidelines of this weekend's International Monetary Fund and World Bank twice-yearly meetings. The smaller G7 grouping of advanced economies holds a closed-door dinner later today.
Neither group is expected to issue a formal statement, but G20 officials said foreign exchange matters will be discussed at both events amid concerns that countries will intentionally weaken their currencies to pursue export-led growth.
Mr Juncker today said the euro is "too strong" and the Chinese yuan too weak.
"The euro appears to be too strong today and we have to make sure that weaker currencies are catching up a bit with the euro and that's clearly the case for the renminbi, which is more than undervalued," Mr Juncker said in a speech in the US capital today.
The International Monetary Fund's annual meeting began today amid concern a "currency war" is being fought by nations keen to embrace weaker exchange rates as a route to stronger economic growth. The dollar dropped below 82 yen for the first time since 1995 today and was headed for a fourth weekly
decline against the euro amid speculation the Federal Reserve will soon deliver more economic stimulus.
"We want peace not war," French finance minister Christine Lagarde told reporters in Washington.
The euro yesterday rose to $1.40 for the first time since February after European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet signaled the ECB doesn't plan to loosen monetary policy as the Fed may do next month by increasing its asset-purchase program.
China, usually at the center of the currency debate, has company this time. Officials are still leaning on Beijing to allow the yuan to rise more rapidly, but Japan's intervention last month to weaken the yen put Tokyo on the hot seat, too.
The United States can also expect criticism over its seemingly benign neglect of the sinking dollar, which has led investors to chase bigger returns in emerging markets such as Brazil, driving up asset prices and inflation.
"What we all want is a rebalancing of the global economy and this rebalancing cannot happen without . . . a change in the related value of currencies," IMF managing director Dominque Strauss-Kahn said.
The currency strains are symptomatic of a deeper problem: most advanced economies are not growing rapidly enough to reduce unemployment despite trillions of dollars in government stimulus spending and emergency loan guarantees.
Additional reporting: Reuters, Bloomberg