Sunday, October 01, 2006

German minister bullish on growth

By Joyce Melvin,
WNS Germany Business Correspondent

BERLIN - Germany's economy minister has given a bullish forecast for growth in Europe's biggest economy. Michael Glos said he expected to see economic growth of between 2.0% and 2.5% this year, according to Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper. The government's official forecast for 2006 is 1.6%, but many analysts now expect growth to top 2% this year. Germany is emerging from several years of sluggish growth, which had put a brake on other eurozone economies.

The recovery is being partly driven by an increase in consumer spending - particularly on the back of the recent World Cup football tournament, which was staged in Germany - as well as strong exports of German goods abroad. However, experts have questioned whether the current economic upturn can be maintained. Mr Glos told Bild am Sonntag that he expected to see "the beginning of a turnaround" in Germany's labour market, suggesting that unemployment would eventually fall below four million. Germany's jobless count fell by 134,000 to 4.24 million - or 10.6% of the population - in September, according to official figures.

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