Germany's finance minister has launched a fierce attack on the US Federal Reserve, saying its decision to pump more money into the economy would create extra problems for the rest of the world.
"I don't think that the Americans are going to solve their problems with this, and I believe that it is going to create extra problems for the world," Wolfgang Schaeuble said on ARD public television.
"We are going to discuss this in a critical fashion with our American friends both in bilateral talks and of course at the G20 summit in South Korea next week," he said.
The US central bank said this week it planned to pump an additional 600 billion dollars into the world's largest economy to boost flagging growth and lower unemployment by buying up government debt.
The strategy, dubbed quantitative easing, is aimed at getting more cash into the pockets of companies, consumers and homeowners by making borrowing cheaper, but there are concerns it will fuel damaging inflation.
"I wish the Americans every success in dealing with their big problems effectively and swiftly, but if they look at the successes that Germany has had they will see that more and more deficits is not the way to do it.
"This was also the joint policy that all industrial nations expressly committed to at the G20 summit in Toronto" earlier this year.
With Europe's biggest economy currently enjoying a strong recovery from last year's slump, the German government has resisted pressure to scale back its spending cuts or lower taxes for consumers and companies.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has also been pressing for the European Union to adopt tougher penalties against member states with high deficits after Greece's debt problems pushed the eurozone to the brink of collapse.
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