BERLIN, Jan 18 - German Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement said on Sunday he expected economic growth in Germany to pick up further in 2005 after recovering this year from the slight decline in growth seen in 2003. Speaking on a discussion programme on German television, Clement said the government was sticking to its forecast that growth this year would come in at between 1.5 and 2.0 percent after shrinking by 0.1 percent in 2003. "That is not too much. That's the minimum we have to reach. I expect that, as long as the sky doesn't fall in somewhere around the world, we'll have stronger growth the following year," he said, adding that unemployment would begin to fall gradually once growth set in this year.
"From around the middle of the year there will be a noticeable improvement on the jobs market," he said, noting the government expected an average fall in jobless numbers of some 100,000 over the year. "That's not the turnaround but it's the beginning, the first signs of a turnaround," he said. The government's growth forecast for the current year is broadly in line with forecasts from independent economists, who have predicted a recovery in Europe's largest economy after three straight years of economic stagnation. The sluggish growth, which Clement called the longest period of stagnation in Germany since World War Two, has left over four million out of work and prompted the government last year to launch a series of tax and welfare reforms to kick start growth.//