Wirtschaft: EU-Chefs warnen vor ‚voreiligen Entscheidungen’[en][fr] 

In contrast to the current imbalance in the US economy, Europe's economic fundamentals remain "solid and sound", the Commissioner pointed out.

"We have a positive current account position. We have a level of savings that is the level required to finance our investments. We have improved our fiscal position a lot. Moreover, we have not got subprime mortgages in our financial system," Almunia said. 

Asked to comment on the recent turmoil in world markets, the commissioner replied that he was seeing Europe "well prepared to weather this situation, even if we cannot ignore the risk of our growth rates being affected by this turmoil".

"The main reason [for the turbulence] is the risk of a recession in the US," Almunia said. His comments followed the US Federal Reserve's announcement of an emergency interest rate cut of 0.75 percentage points, the largest reduction since 1984. 

"Big imbalances have built up over the years in the US economy – a big current account deficit and a lack of savings," Almunia explained, adding that "these imbalances are the root cause of the current turbulence. It is not the only reason, but it is the basic cause". 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged investors not to panic in the light of this week's stock market plunge and warned citizens against making "hasty decisions", saying in a radio interview that "there is no sign of a recession in Germany". 

Asked to comment on the Fed's actions, Italian Finance Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa said: "I do think the events of the last 24 hours change the assessment fundamentally. A correction is under way, a correction to important imbalances." 

Jürgen Stark, executive board member of the European Central Bank responsible for economic analysis, warned against "angst and panic" in an interview with the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit, adding that eurozone growth could remain in line with its long-term trend.

Others, such as Marco Annuziata, chief economist at Unicredit, an Italian bank, were expecting the ECB to react: "The pressure for a careful and timely recalibration of their rhetoric has clearly increased," Annuziata told the Financial Times. 

Just two weeks ago, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet had issued a warning that "pre-emptive" interest rate rises were possible in order to cut off inflationary threats caused by high wage settlements.