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COPYRIGHT 2001 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News
By Stewart Fleming, Evening Standard, London Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Apr. 30--As the outlook for the global economy darkens, Wim Duisenberg finds himself under rising political pressure. Par for the course you might say for the 65-year-old Dutchman who has been president of the European Central Bank since the single currency project was launched in May 1998.
Last week, rattled American economic policymakers headed by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, indicated that with US growth plunging, the time had come for Europe to take over as dynamo for the global economy.
Declaring himself "mystified" by the ECB's monetary policy, his comments were quickly interpreted as a demand for lower interest rates and faster growth in Euroland.
Even Horst Kohler, the first German ever to head the Washington-based International Monetary Fund, stretched his brief as an official overseer of the global economy to call explicitly for an ECB rate cut. It may have gone down well among some politicians in his homeland -- Germany's economy seems to be hardest hit by the global slowdown and may not expand...
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