国际英语新闻：EU finance ministers agree on principles of exit strategy

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) finance ministers on Thursday agreed on some principles of an exit strategy to phase out their economic stimulus, but left a question mark on when to put it into practice.

    "This is the right time to start to design and communicate credible exit strategies. Today we have had the first discussions on exit strategies," Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, whose country holds the EU rotating presidency, told reporters after the first session of a two-day informal meeting with his EU counterparts in the Swedish port city of Gothenburg.

Borg said EU finance ministers had agreed that the exit strategy must be based in principle on timely withdrawal of extraordinary support measures, further structural fiscal consolidation, comprehensive structural reforms and reform of national budgetary frameworks.

Sweden's Finance Minister Anders Borg arrives for the dinner of the G20 Finance Ministers' meeting at the Guildhall in the City of London September 4, 2009

    "My interpretation and conclusions from the discussions are quite clear. A comprehensive exit strategy must be built on a timely withdrawal of extraordinary measures. We need further structural fiscal consolidation above 0.5 (percent of GDP) or more than 0.5 per year," he said.

    Joaquin Almunia, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, said earlier today that the exit strategy must be coupled with structural reforms in order to deal with rising unemployment and raise growth potential of EU economy.

    According to Almunia, potential growth in the euro zone, composed of 16 EU nations that use the euro, would be halved to around one percent after the financial crisis.

    Figures released by the EU's statistics office Eurostat today showed that unemployment in the EU rose to 9.1 percent in August, the record level since March 2004, which poses a serious challenge to economic recovery.

    Almunia's view was obviously supported by EU finance ministers.

    "We need comprehensive structural reforms aimed at strengthening the structural employment and potential growth, including labor market reforms and long-term investments," Borg said.

    "We also need to strengthen the national budgetary frameworks," he added.

    But EU finance ministers could not tell when they should start to implement the exit strategy, stressing the economic stimulus should continue for now.

    "The green shoots are turning into leaves but it is not a full-blown summer, so obviously there is a need for this expansionary policy to be kept," Borg said.

    "It would be wrong to withdraw the financial stimulus measures at the current juncture," he added.

    Borg said EU finance ministers would continue to work on when to start withdraw economic stimulus during the Swedish EU presidency, which lasts until the end of this year.

    Almunia said the European Commission was set to publish its major economic forecasts on Nov. 3, which would give a clearer picture of the EU economic outlook in 2010 and 2011.

    "This economic outlook ... will be relevant to help the decision on when the exit strategies should start and to be implemented," he said, adding the exit strategy can only be put into practice once economic recovery takes hold.

    Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), said eurozone countries should start to implement an exit strategy by phasing out economic stimulus in the 2011 at the latest.

    "From an ECB point of view, it is important to do what is necessary to exit as soon as possible," Trichet said.

    "It is important in our view that it starts as soon as the recovery starts. It is something which is essential for the recovery itself," he said. "I would say, in our own view, at the latest in 2011."

    Echoing Trichet, Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado and Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders also said 2011 may be the appropriate time for implementation of exit strategies.

    "Perhaps 2011 is an appropriate year, but we will have to wait a little bit. Now the recovery is not here. I think we should start a recovery in 2010, perhaps the second part of the year," Salgado said.

    But Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos suggested EU member states may not have to follow the same timetable in phasing out stimulus.

    "I think it is very difficult. I do not think that the implication of this international crisis is a symmetric one for each of the countries," he said.