Euro zone finance ministers today confirmed an uncertain growth outlook and said spending would rise but repeated a need for budget discipline to permit further interest rate cuts.
Belgian Finance Minister Mr Didier Reynders told a press conference recent steep rate cuts and a massive fiscal boost in the United States demonstrated the virtue of solid finances that the euro zone should emulate.
This shows the importance of sticking to the (stability and growth) budget pact and achieving a surplus in the medium term, the chairman of the euro group of finance ministers told a joint press conference with the European Commission.
Mr Reynders said economic fundamentals were good and that some countries in the common currency bloc had scope to respond via higher spending.
"We did stress the basic soundness of the European and American economies. The fundamentals of these two economies are sound", he said.
"We have low inflation, in fact it's going down. Fiscal consolidation has been largely achieved or is in the process of being achieved. So our capacity to respond is quite good".
But he repeated his view there was probably more scope for manoeuvre on the monetary side than the budgetary side but said this was the decision of the European Central Bank.
Suicide attacks on the United States risk a recession on both sides of the Atlantic and have prompted a $75 billion stimulus package in Washington as well as two rate cuts.
The ECB matched the first half-point move on September 17th but decided to keep its powder dry when it met last week.