BERLIN (MNI) – The German government wants China to eventually
allow its currency to be fully flexible but understands that this is not
an easy task, Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle said Tuesday.
“We wish that China will one day have a fully flexible currency,”
Bruederle said. “However, I understand that the path [to a flexible
yuan] is not so easy for China, because internally it has substantial
differences in its [economic] development.”
Thus, the minister said he was counting on a “ongoing open dialogue
with China.”
Bruederle was asked by reporters about criticism that Germany did
not want to help the financially ailing Eurozone member Greece because a
weaker euro is helping the German export sector.
The minister replied that “a stable euro is important for the
reputation of Europe, of the Eurozone in the world and that is why
stability [of the euro] is in our fundamental interest.”
“We do not want the German taxpayer to finance the problems of
Greece,” Bruederle said. Neither Germany nor Greece wants a system of
financial compensation between Eurozone member states, he claimed: “This
is explicitly prohibited by the no bail out clause” in the EU Treaties.
Bruederle again rebuffed French criticism on Germany’s large trade
surpluses, calling these allegations “bizarre.” He reckoned that Germany
was currently driving the European economic recovery. Thus, one should
not try to choke of the German growth engine, he said. “France is also
profiting when Germany is successful,” he argued.
Still, the minister acknowledged that the forces behind the
domestic upswing “are still not self-sustaining.”
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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