国际英语新闻：Eurozone finance chiefs say no need for more stimulus

BRUSSELS, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Finance ministers from the Eurozone countries said on Monday that there is no need for additional stimulus packages even though the combined economy of the 16-nation bloc was forecast to be in a deeper recession.

    "All ministers in the Eurogroup, including the European Central Bank, agree that the fiscal efforts launched by the Eurozone countries should be sufficient for the time being," Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters after chairing a regular monthly meeting with Eurozone finance ministers, or Eurogroup.

    "We now want to see the effects on the ground," he said.

    Juncker's view was echoed by Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proell.

    "We have a lot in the pipeline...Many elements of the stimulus packages, many of our tax reductions will only start to have an effect in the coming weeks and months," Proell said.

    The European Commission forecast earlier on Monday that the Eurozone economy will contract by four percent this year and by a further 0.1 percent next year, plunging into the deepest and most widespread recession since the Second World War.

    So far, the European Union (EU) and its member states have committed almost two percent of the EU's gross domestic product (GDP) to stimulus packages. If the so-called automatic stabilizers such as jobless benefits are included, the overall spending on stimulus amounts to around five percent of the EU's GDP.

    Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos downplayed the gloomy outlook predicted by the commission.

    "We should not panic every time new figures come up. We should just execute the decisions we have already taken, because I think they were pretty good," Bos said.

    "We need to make sure the planned stimulus packages will really take effect. A second round of stimulus packages will cost more tax money and with dubious effects," he added.

    The commission forecast showed that as EU governments spent billions of euros on fiscal stimulus and tax revenue dwindled in the economic downturn, public finances are being hit hard, with the budget deficit set to more than double this year in the EU from 2.3 percent of the GDP in 2008 to 6 percent and to increase further to 7.24 percent in 2010.

    This will limit the room for European countries to boost fiscal stimulus since the EU's Stability and Growth Pact requires member states to keep their budget deficit below three percent their GDP.

    Juncker said that the key measure now is to clean up the so-called toxic assets of financial institutions so as to restore confidence in the financial markets and encourage banks to restart lending to the real economy.