Saturday, February 6, 2010

Trichet on Germany (fg)

From the latest press conference and Q&A:

Germany represents a very important part of the euro area, and so attention is of course paid to this particular economy. I think what we can say is that this country protected itself in the very difficult situation in which we were all put, particularly on the employment front, in a way which is quite impressive. We are all reflecting, not only in Europe but also at the global level, on the different behaviours that we have observed from the employment angle in various countries, to understand better what dynamics are at stake and what might explain those differences. Now, we will see what happens in this country, which is very highly internationalised, which has specialisations that are important, particularly as regards capital goods, machine tools, equipment and so forth. We will see exactly what happens when we have confirmation of the growing recovery in Asia, in particular in emerging Asian countries, and in the emerging world economies altogether. I expect that in this episode of the recovery, Germany will probably have more orders and more exports, which will contribute to its growth. I respond to the question because you asked a very specific question, but I cannot embark on responding to questions on particular countries