Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany's improving economic outlook means that the country can once again be the "engine of Europe" in the near future, but only if the political will for economic reform continues.
The normally reserved German leader was speaking after a week of good economic news: the lowest deficit since 1990, record tax takings and a four-year unemployment low.
"Unemployment has dropped by half a million since October last year and economic growth has more than doubled," said Dr Merkel to Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "If we continue to work consequentially and without false promises, we can win back lost trust. We have every chance that Germany will soon be in better shape and will become the engine of Europe."
Dr Merkel's warning of "false promises" was directed at some members of the grand coalition parties of the CDU and SPD, who have used the good news to call for the end, or even reversal, of the economic reform process.
Peer Steinbrück, the finance minister, announced on Friday that he was using a €32 billion jump in tax revenue forecast this year to cut Germany's borrowing by €8.4 billion over two years.
