G-20 finance chiefs to tackle global imbalances

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Financial ministers from G-20 nations head this weekend to Washington, where they will brainstorm a new set of standards to tackle global economic imbalances.

The G-20 meeting of finance ministers on Friday and Saturday will tackle global economic imbalances, such as when a nation relies on export surpluses rather than consumption to grow its economy. But the meeting won't focus on exchange rates specifically, according to a senior Treasury official.

"It's very important that we all think about imbalances in the same way," said a senior Treasury official during a media briefing at Treasury on Tuesday.

The G-20 will also work on coming up with a short list of nations responsible for putting the world economy at risk, so that the group can more closely monitor them, the official said.

These efforts would focus on excessive trade balances, investment income flows as well as excessive domestic debt and deficits, like those that plague the United States.

And they could lay the groundwork for the G-20 to come up with trade surplus caps for nations like China -- a move China strongly opposes.