Slowing economic growth in Europe is emerging as the key risk for 2005, Britain's finance minister will warn today as he promises to push employment and market reforms in the euro zone.
Britain's economy has withstood soaring oil prices and growing raw material costs but now faces the challenge of sluggish growth in key export markets, Gordon Brown will say in his first major speech since Labour won re-election.
"As we look ahead to the rest of 2005, the latest risk is low economic growth in Europe . . . particularly low in Germany, our largest export market in the euro area," he will say, according to extracts released in advance.
The euro zone has grown at around half the rate of the United States and Britain in the past five years and so Britain must promote structural reforms when it takes on the rotating European Union presidency in July.
"Our aim is a Europe that instead of being a trade bloc looking inward on itself, looks outward, engages with the rest of the world and reforms and liberalises to meet the global challenge," Mr Brown will tell business leaders.