The world's leading economies agreed Friday to further steps to identify nations with dangerous economic and fiscal imbalances and to find ways to keep them from harming the global economy, dpa reported.
The agreement came at a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 countries in Washington on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Funds spring meetings.
The framework for identifying potentially problematic imbalances will focus on the world's seven largest economies, likely including the United States, China, France, Germany and Japan, but officials would not name the countries.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who chaired the G20 gathering, said the focus will be on the largest countries because they have the biggest impacts on the global economy and each account for more than 5 per cent of the G20's gross domestic product.