Germany finds no cause for pessimism

Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday the recent stock market turbulence was no reason to be pessimistic about the prospects for Europe's biggest economy.

"You cannot ignore the fact that the international economic climate is weaker but the conditions are present for robust growth in Germany this year," Merkel said on her weekly video podcast message.

Merkel also said it was important for Germany to stick to its efforts to stabilise its budget and keep creating jobs.

She also stressed her desire to boost transparency on financial markets, saying that was one of the reasons for her meeting next week with British, French and Italian leaders. "The lesson of the [market] turbulence must be to increase transparency for financial instruments," she said.

Strategy

The leaders meet in London on Tuesday to discuss economic strategy.

The gathering will be closely watched in light of world stock market turmoil over the last week and the announcement by French bank Societe Generale of the biggest rogue trading loss in history.

Germany had wanted to push through measures to improve transparency for hedge funds during last year's presidency of the Group of Eight industrialised nations but made little progress due to opposition from several countries.

"At first, our efforts were very difficult but in the meantime a global awareness has grown that new rules must be established or companies must agree to take on some responsibility to react to the new challenges," said Merkel.