The German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück has told the BBC that Germany must begin to reduce its dependence on foreign trade.
Germany was ranked by the World Factbook as the biggest exporter in the world last year.
But the downturn in global trade caused by the credit crisis has hit it hard.
The German government expects the country’s economy to contract by 6% this year, largely because of very steep falls in exports.
Some economists have argued that Germany had relied far too heavily on foreign trade, which made it rich in the boom times but left it vulnerable to a global crisis.
Its finance minister Peer Steinbrück has now admitted in an interview with the BBC that the current balance between foreign and domestic markets must start to change.

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