Japan quake's impact on world economy worries Europe
(BRUSSELS) - European governments voiced concerns Monday about the impact Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami could have on the global economy just as the world recovers from recession.
European finance ministers meeting in Brussels for talks focused on plans to defend the euro from future debt crises were to also discuss the "terrible events in Japan," said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.
"We will examine the effect this will have on the world economy and financial markets," Schaeuble said as he arrived for two days of meetings with European Union counterparts.
"We will look at this very closely and it is good that G20 finance ministers have planned to meet again in two weeks," he said.
The meeting of the world's 20 industrialised and emerging economies will allow ministers to "examine more closely how we could or should react" to events in Japan, Schaeuble said.
Noting that Japan is the world's third biggest economy after the United States and China, Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado said the EU "must be attentive."
"Japan also has an impact on the (world) economy," she told reporters.
Japanese stocks tumbled Monday and the central bank pumped a record amount of cash in a bid to soothe money markets shaken by the natural disaster, which has triggered a nuclear emergency at atomic reactors.