German Chancellor Angela Merkel will Tuesday discuss the global economy with the heads of the World Bank, IMF, the World Trade Organisation and other top institutions, her spokesman said. The spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told a regular news conference on Friday that Merkel would host the meeting, which will also include the chiefs of the OECD and the International Labour Organisation, in Berlin at 5:00 pm (1600 GMT) followed by a joint press conference.
"They will speak about the state of the global economy," Seibert said. "The chancellor will hear what each organisation does in the scope of its remit to grapple with the current global economic challenges." World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim, the International Monetary Fund's Christine Lagarde, WTO head Pascal Lamy, International Labour Organisation Secretary General Guy Ryder and the OECD's Angel Gurria will attend. The talks come after a similar gathering with Merkel in October 2011, and this year will follow a meeting in Paris on Monday between French President Francois Hollande and the same group.
France's foreign, finance and labour ministers will also "exchange expertise" at the Paris meeting where "international organisations will outline their vision of economic perspectives for developed and emerging nations." The discussions come amid frantic efforts to battle the contagion threatening the crisis-wracked eurozone and competing approaches advocated by the heads of the bloc's two top economies - Merkel and Hollande.