Senior officials from the Group of Seven (G-7) countries will meet next week to decide an agenda for the body’s June summit scheduled to be held in Venice, Japanese officials said. The meeting will provide senior government officials with their first chance to discuss the recent sharp drop of the dollar, although the main focus of the gathering is longer term, they said. Deputy Finance Ministers, including Japanese Vice-Finance Minister Toyoo Gyohten, will attend.

The Japanese government is considering buying U.S.-made supercomputers to help defuse mounting trade friction between the two countries, Trade Minister Hajime Tamura was quoting as saying. Japanese officials said Tamura told visiting U.S. Trade Representative Clayton Yeutter that the government may set aside money for the purchase of the supercomputers in a supplementary budget to be drawn up later this year. But he emphasised that the matter was still under study and that no firm decision had been made.

Hot, dry weather over the Midwest, with more forecast, pushed grain futures prices to new highs today on the Chicago Board of Trade. Soybean futures led the advance, closing up the 30-cent-per-bushel daily trading limit in contracts for delivery after this year’s fall harvest. All months set life-of-contract highs and November closed at 6.23 dlrs a bushel. “The market is anticipating that it will stay hotter than normal for some time out,” said David Bartholomew, assistant vice president for Merrill Lynch.

Taiwan’s industrial production index, base 1981, rose 14.21 pct to 162.19 in March from a revised 142.01 in February, and 7.19 pct from March 1986, the Economic Ministry said. The February figure was revised from a preliminary 140.06. A ministry official said the March index stood at its highest level since the 169.94 set in December 1986. He attributed the increase to rising production of textiles, wooden and bamboo products, plastics, machinery, electronics, transportation equipment, mining and house construction.

The U.S. Mint received 17 offers from seven firms at prices ranging from 0.66845-0.6840 dlrs per lb for payment by standard check and 0.66695-0.68 dlrs per lb for wire transfer payment in a review of offers on 3,701,000 lbs of electrolytic copper it is seeking to purchase. Philipp Brothers, N.Y., led with the lowest offers of 0.66695 for wire transfer payment and 0.66845 dlrs per lb to be paid by check, followed by Cerro Sales Corp, N.

About 20 members of the Taiwan parliament criticised the government for holding too much of foreign exchange reserves in U.S. Dollars and asked the cabinet to diversify these holdings into other major currencies. A parliament statement said the criticism came from 18 Kuomintang (nationalist) legislators and several opposition members, who asked the government to diversify reserves into mark, yen, Swiss franc, other currencies or gold. It said that from September 1985 to September 1986 the central bank’s exchange rate loss was about 144 billion Taiwan dlrs.

West Germany’s current account surplus widened to a provisional 8.8 billion marks in March from a slightly downwards revised 6.5 billion in February, a spokesman for the Federal Statistics Office said. The trade surplus fell to a provisional 10.1 billion marks from 10.4 billion in February. The Statistics Office had earlier put the February current account surplus at a provisional 6.6 billion marks. The provisional February trade surplus was confirmed.

Indonesia has imported 12,000 tonnes of refined sugar from Cuba to meet consumer demand in the province of South Sulawesi, the head of the provincial food agency said. The imported sugar was needed because two of three sugar refineries in the province have been temporarily shut down. It arrived in the provincial capital of Ujungpandang today and will be distributed to markets in the province, the food agency official said.

Cominco Ltd has no contract negotiations scheduled this week with any of the five striking locals at the Trail smelter and Kimberley lead-zinc mine, union spokesmen said. However, leaders of the negotiating teams are trying to set up an informal meeting to discuss the stalemate, John Owens, spokesman for United Steelworkers of America local 480 said. Owens said Cominco has said the strike, which began May 9, is costing it five mln Canadian dlrs a day in debt service costs that are not covered by revenue.

China’s total wage bill for state employees grew too fast in the first quarter, because of excessive bonuses, allowances and overtime pay, the official Economic Information newspaper said. It said the total wage bill in the period was 38.7 billion yuan, an increase of 16.7 pct over the first quarter of 1986, when the bill grew a year-on-year 16.3 pct. The increase accounted for 39.6 pct of planned wage rises in all of 1987.