European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council member Mr Ernst Welteke said today that macroeconomic and financing conditions were favourable to growth globally.
"Macroeconomic conditions are favourable to growth all over the world . . . plenty of liquidity makes for favourable financing conditions," Mr Welteke said in a speech for a German-American friendship society.
"But even the best financing conditions will not encourage enterprises to invest if they have no confidence that they will be able to sell their goods," said Mr Welteke, who is also the president of Germany's Bundesbank.
This meant Europe needed to structurally reform its economy, while the United States should address existing imbalances.
Recent dollar depreciation may help the United States quell its growing current account deficit, although a big part of that deficit is with Asian countries and the dollar's depreciation against Asian currencies has been less dramatic, Mr Welteke said.