Germany criticises Brown's rescue plans

LONDON (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck has criticised countries for rushing through what he called crass and untested economic rescue packages at a "breathtaking and depressing" pace.

In an interview with Newsweek magazine, Steinbrueck urged governments to pause before pledging to spend billions of dollars on plans to try and help their economies emerge from the global credit crunch.

A recession was unavoidable and governments should stop trying to outdo each other with ever bigger stimulus measures, said Steinbrueck.

"The speed at which proposals are put together under pressure that don't even pass an economic test is breathtaking and depressing," he said in the interview, published on the magazine's website on Wednesday.

Steinbrueck singled out Prime Minister Gordon Brown for particular criticism, accusing him of switching to economic policies that would saddle a generation with debt.

"The same people who would never touch deficit spending are now tossing around billions," he said.

"The switch from decades of supply-side politics all the way to a crass Keynesianism is breathtaking."

GERMAN DOUBTS

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has expressed doubts as to whether ever-increasing fiscal boosts are the cure-all solution for every country's economic ills.