2012 to be worse than 2011: German finance minister
The new year will probably be worse than the last, but Germany, Europe's biggest economy, should be able to withstand it, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview Monday.
"2012 will probably be more difficult than 2011, but the German economy is in good shape," Schaeuble told the mass-circulation daily Bild.
The minister urged eurozone countries to "do their homework... consolidate their budgets and push through the necessary reforms" to resolve the long-running debt crisis.
The bail-out mechanisms put in place by member states "can only buy time for states to take the necessary measures and win back confidence," Schaeuble added.
In a separate interview with the Berlin regional daily Tagesspiegel, the head of Germany's central bank, Jens Weidmann, also warned Berlin not to ease up on its budget consolidation efforts and called on Germany to set an example for the rest of Europe.
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