FRANKFURT (MktNews) - German Finance Minister Hans Eichel said Friday that he sees "absolutely no reason for alarm" on the state of the German, European and global economies.
"Everyone agrees that we (in Germany) have a broad-based economic upswing but at a somewhat slower pace than last year due to the oil price crisis and the slowdown in America and Japan," Eichel told reporters following a banking conference here.
"But because we in Europe, and most of all in Germany, have cut taxes, we have a good chance that the economy will remain robust and stable on a broad base," Eichel continued.
He said he had "no new figure" for the government's official forecast, maintaining the current prediction that growth would be between 2.6% and 2.9% this year, centered on 2.75%. He noted that recent German economic data were "very contradictory."
Eichel acknowledged that many private forecasts are below that of the government, and that some of them are calling for German growth this year of as low as 2%.
"But even 2% is more than the average we saw in the 1990s," Eichel said.
Turning to the global economy, Eichel played down concerns that the economic troubles now being seen in the United States and Japan could fuel a wider global slowdown.
"I don't believe so," he told reporters. "The Americans have acted very quickly," he said, noting the Federal Reserve's interest rates cuts in January. In addition, recent U.S. labor market data were "very good" and retail sales data were "stable," he said.
Moreover, German exports are "booming."
"We have absolutely no reason to get nervous, but of course one can never say exactly what the future will bring," he said.
Eichel also declined to comment on reports that the federal government is facing a large, and growing, deficit shortfall due to higher-than-expected spending and lower-than-expected tax revenues. Eichel repeated that a reliable assessment of revenue intake could not be made before the new official tax estimate in May.