German Finance Minister Mr Hans Eichel reiterated today he saw no need to fear a crisis after yesterday’s attacks on the United States, saying the economic effects should be limited.
"The markets have reacted sensibly. There is no reason to build up a crisis scenario," Mr Eichel told a news conference.
Stock markets in Europe fell sharply in reaction to news of the terrorist attacks, but today were broadly unchanged as the dollar stabilised against other major currencies and gold and oil prices gave back knee-jerk gains made yesterday.
Mr Eichel lauded the close cooperation of G7 nations and central banks in the aftermath of the attacks, noting the European Central Bank had acted swiftly to inject cash to prevent a sudden rise in market interest rates.
He declined to comment on whether G7 finance ministers planned to hold an emergency meeting or whether the International Monetary Fund may cancel its planned meeting in Washington on September 29-30th.
Asked why stock markets were not closed in Europe, as they were in the US, Mr Eichel replied: "There was a very quick mutual agreement that we had to do as much as possible to avoid a widening of the consequences (of the attack).
"Secondly there was a mutual agreement after London closed for a short while and also a clear agreement with our American colleagues that the markets should be opened.
"Anything else would have contributed to a difficult situation. I understand that that might have appeared a little cynical but our task was to secure the functional ability of the markets," Mr Eichel added.
Eichel said he saw no immediate reason to lower his growth forecast for the German economy and also played down the possible impact for the country's budget, which was presented to Parliament yesterday ahead of news of the attacks.