Germany's economy and labour minister Mr Wolfgang Clement said in a newspaper interview published today he would like the European Central Bank to cut its key rates further.
"From a German point of view, we could, of course, do with an interest rate policy along US lines, which means a much steeper cut in rates," Mr Clement told the Financial Times Deutschland.
The ECB cut rates to 2.75 per cent at the beginning of December, the first reduction in euro-zone borrowing costs in more than a year.
Subsequent comments by ECB officials seem to suggest that although further monetary easing cannot be ruled out, the bank will not be in a hurry to cut rates again in the immediate future.
Mr Clement said the ECB should keep in mind the sacrifices Germany had made in adopting the euro. "By surrendering the deutschemark, Germany has made stability sacrifices," Mr Clement said. "Without the euro, interest rates in Germany would be much lower".
But Mr Clement was not seeking to blame the ECB for Germany's current economic woes, which arose from structural rigidities that have built up over the past 40 or 50 years, he added.
In 2002, the German economy grew by a minimal 0.2 per cent, its lowest growth in nine years.
