Germany set for 3% growth

THE GERMAN economy will grow by up to 3 per cent next year, and unemployment fall by 300,000, Economics Minister Werner Muller said yesterday. "We will have economic growth nearer to 3 per cent than to 2.5 per cent," Mr Muller told Bild am Sonntag.

The forecast matches the view of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder (pictured), but is more optimistic than that of Finance Minister Hans Eichel, who sees growth in 2000 at 2.5 per cent. The German economy has on average expanded at an annual 1.4 per cent in the 1990s, with the costs of reunification holding back growth.