The German Economics Minister, Mr Guenter Rexrodt, said yesterday the country's economy would perform better in 1998 than it has over the past year and predicted the jobs market would turn for the better.

"The year 1998 will be better than 1997," he told the Leipziger Volkszeitung daily.

"We will have stronger growth of around 3 per cent and during the course of the year we will experience an improvement on the labour market."

The German government has forecast economic growth of 2.5 per cent for 1997 and 3 per cent next year.

Many economic research institutes and leading organisations such as the OECD and the International Monetary Fund, however, have cut their forecasts for 1998 to below 3 per cent.

Mr Rexrodt said the low growth rate in eastern Germany, hit by high unemployment and a deep building sector slump, concealed the fact that the economy was recovering and poised for growth.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister Mr Klaus Kinkel, in an interview with the Daily Express of London, said the introduction of a single currency was a "question of fate" for Germany and Europe.

He said over 50 per cent of Germans now supported giving up their beloved mark for the euro currency and that he did not expect the European economic and monetary union to be a major issue during the upcoming election campaign.

"It will not be possible to win an election by trying to raise tempers against the euro," he said.

He said he expected a large number of European Union members to qualify for the single currency. Germany and France would meet the criteria and it would not be long before Britain would decide to join the single currency club.

The participants in monetary union will be chosen early next year based on their economic performance in 1997.