Euro crisis to dominate G-20 summit

BERLIN - The Associated Press

‘We must all resist the temptation to finance growth again through new debt,’ Chancellor Angela Merkel says. AP Photo

German Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged yesterday that Europe’s lingering debt crisis will dominate this weekend’s summit of the world’s 20 most important economies in Mexico, but she stuck to her conviction that the region’s crisis can only be solved by keeping a tight rein on government finances and introducing structural reforms.

“We must all resist the temptation to finance growth again through new debt,” she said in an address to parliament before leaving to the gathering of world leaders. “We can only overcome the crisis when we tackle it at its roots, the high debt level and the lack of competitiveness in some member states,” she maintained.

Europe’s debt woes “will overshadow all other topics” at the meeting, with the eyes of the world’s leaders on Germany as Europe’s biggest economy to fix the crisis and to do more to spur growth, she said.

“But strengthening growth and budget consolidation must go together,” she added.

Euro crisis, G-20,