Talks between EU, U.S. don’t point to trade war: Germany’s Scholz

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – Trade talks between the United States and the European Union have been “sensible” and don’t point to a trade war, Germany’s finance minister Olaf Scholz said on Friday.

Finance ministers and central bankers from across the world are arriving in Indonesian resort of Bali this week for the International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings.

The gathering comes amid an escalating trade dispute between the United States and China, financial jitters in some emerging economies and worries about Italy’s public finances.

Scholz struck a sanguine tone, however.

“There are very sensible and trustful talks between the EU and the U.S. that don’t point to an escalation of the trade conflict,” he told reporters.

Sitting alongside Scholz, Germany’s central bank president Jens Weidmann said a recent slowdown in global growth was due to a “normalization” from previous years’ exuberance, rather than a consequence of trade tensions.

Turning to Italy, Scholz said he took Italian policymakers’ pledge to respect EU budget rules “at face value” but sent a warning to the euro zone’s largest debtor.

“If anybody has to give advice to Italy it’s to be careful what it’s doing,” he said.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.