Those business executives, economists, and investors/traders who had hoped G-7 economic leaders meeting in Washington over the weekend would take efforts to stem the U.S. dollar's decline may be left feeling slightly disappointed.

Finance chiefs from the G-7 notched-up their rhetoric on the dollar, but provided little substantial evidence they'll take actions -- monetary or fiscal -- to stem the dollar's slide, Bloomberg News reported Sunday night.

"We continue to monitor exchange markets closely, and cooperate as appropriate,'' the G-7 said, Bloomberg News reported, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson adding that the G-7 statement on currencies "reflects market developments and changes in the markets." The G-7 then pledged to implement further monetary and fiscal policies "as appropriate,'' without providing specific details.

No substantive action on dollar

Economist Peter Dawson told BloggingStocks Monday the G-7 statement by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, and Canada amounted to a statement against currency rate volatility, not a substantive effort to bolster the dollar. He added that G-7 representatives, in his interpretation, appeared more concerned about maintaining financial market liquidity due to the ongoing credit slump, than about the dollar's value.

"The European Central Bank is not cutting interest rates, and there was no hint of that at the summit, so unless Europe's exporters start to kick about the strong euro, I don't see a change in the dollar-lower trend," Dawson said. "The weak dollar is also boosting using exports, and that's one of the few bright spots in the U.S. economy, so it seems almost illogical for world leaders to intervene to try to reverse the dollar's decline at this stage."

The dollar has fallen more than 70% versus the euro and more than 30% versus the British pound since 2001. The dollar traded at $1.5820 versus the euro and at $1.9855 versus the British pound in Monday morning trading, down about 1 cent against each major currency.

Longer-term, however, in order to maintain the attractiveness of U.S investments, and to protect dollar purchasing power, Dawson said the United States must cut its federal budget deficit and trade deficit to reverse the dollar's decline -- issues that can only be resolved by the U.S. President and Congress, and by the American people (by saving more and consuming less), not by G-7 leaders.