German finance minister warns against monetary policy as an EU fix – as manufacturing sector almost at 2.5 year high
Germany's finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said that monetary policy can not be the only way out of economic crisis, and that governments – not the European Central Bank – must solve the Eurozone's problems.
Schaeuble says that the central bank's mandate must remain limited, and that it can't solve the crisis alone.
Simultaneously, we've got data coming from Markit which reveals that November is seeing German manufacturing growth now at its strongest for nearly two-and-a-half years. The purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the sector hit a 29-month high of 52.5 (and any number above 50 implies expansion).
The composite number (with both manufacturing and services sectors) is at a 10-month high – good news for GDP, as the chart below shows.
