BERLIN (MktNews) - German growth will rebound sharply early next year and +3.5% GDP is realistic in the first half of 2002, Economics Minister Werner Mueller told Monday's Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ).
Mueller backed his upbeat assessment by saying that the current economic slowdown is bottoming out and that growth would pick up again by the end of this year or at the beginning of next year.
"The slowdown in economic growth is bottoming out. By the end of the year or at the beginning of next year growth will rebound sharply," Mueller said in an interview with WAZ. "There is no sign of recession."
Finance Minister Hans Eichel recently said German 2002 growth of 2.2% was likely.
For this year, the federal government is still standing by its official growth forecast of "around 2.0%", but Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder recently conceded growth in 2001 would be between 1.5% and 2.0% due to the global slowdown.
The government should stick to its austerity program, Mueller said, despite calls from business leaders and opposition politicians for economic stimulus programs. "That is pointless. We should not depart from our austerity program," he said.
In other comments, Mueller said he was still upbeat that the federal government would reach its goal of cutting unemployment to 3.5 million by the autumn next year.
Chancellor Schroeder, however, recently said it could be hard to reach the target.