Merkel holds German economic summit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met 40 top business leaders, trade unionists and experts on Wednesday to thrash out ways to pull Europe's biggest economy out of its worst post-war recession.

Also attending the meeting were senior ministers including Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck and Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. A news conference was scheduled after the meeting at 3:00 pm (1300 GMT).

The world's biggest exporter of goods has been hit hard by the global downturn and Berlin is reported to be about to slash its forecast for 2009 to a slump of five percent, bringing it into line with economists' predictions.

The government's current forecast is for gross domestic product (GDP) to fall by about 2.25 percent this year. Even that would be the biggest recession in Germany since World War II. Merkel was criticised at home and abroad for being slow to act and data have shown that her government's two stimulus packages worth a combined 80 billion euros (100 billion dollars) have had little effect so far. AFP