FRANKFURT (AFX) - Finance minister Hans Eichel said it is not clear whether the German economy will recover this year or in the first half of next year. Eichel said in the text of a speech it is now a question of when, not if the German economy will recover. "Will the recovery in Germany begin this year? Or in the first half of the following year? We will have to wait and see," Eichel said. He blamed the current slowdown in the euro zone on external effects, such as the problems in the US and the limp growth in Asian countries. Eichel added phases of weak growth are nothing new. "We always came out of those and this will also be the case this time," he said.