BERLIN (MNI) – It is crucial that the rescue program recently
agreed by the EU be successful and the euro stabilized, Germany’s
Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle said Monday.
“The German economy needs a stable euro,” Bruederle said in a
speech at an economics conference here. The “positive underlying
momentum” of the German economy has to be protected, he insisted.
Eurozone countries with high deficits “need to consolidate up to
the pain barrier and beyond,” the Minister demanded. Yet, the main
problem is the lack of competitiveness of these countries, he argued.
In other comments, Bruederle noted that the economic crisis had
only temporarily brought commodity prices down. Recent marked price
rises of some commodities “are signals which we take very seriously,” he
said. It is essential that transparency in commodity markets be
increased, he asserted.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$X$$$,M$G$$$,M$$CR$,MGX$$$,M$$FX$]
