The currency of euro is as good as Germany's mark and the Germans should be more optimistic about their economy, said Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank (ECB).

"When we took office, we had to promise 12 nations that the new currency would be at least as good as their old currencies," Trichet said in an interview with the German magazine of Spiegel on Thursday.

Before euro entered circulation on Jan. 1, 2002, there were a few "bests" of currencies including the deutsche mark, Trichet said, "I am proud that the euro is just as reliable as the deutsche mark was."

Weak domestic demand resulting from a lack of confidence, is one of the problems facing Germany's economy, which has been sluggish for recent years.

"Germans perhaps tend to overemphasize the difficulties. At the same time, the public underestimates what your country has already achieved," Trichet said.

"Of course reunification was an enormous undertaking. But the Germans have come a long way since then," he said.

German official statistics show that every year around 90 billion euros (about 108 billion U.S. dollars), or 4.6 percent of its 2.362 trillion U.S. dollars GDP in 2004, are transferred from the western part to the east region.

Trichet called on Germans to be more confident about their economy.

"And since the introduction of the euro, the German economy's cost competitiveness has improved considerably compared to the EU average. This is partly reflected in Germany's export numbers," he added.

The German Federal Statistics Office said the country's exports, valued at 68.7 billion euros (81.27 billion U.S. dollars) in October, increased 7.2 percent from a year ago.

Trichet concluded that "there is no reason why this improvement in the country's economic situation shouldn't eventually affect domestic demand and especially consumption."

Comparing the thinking of Americans with that of Europeans, Trichet said "a happy medium" should be found.

"Optimism is systematic in the United States. For the Americans, the glass is always half full, whereas it's always half empty in the euro zone and in the current German culture," he said.

"The fact is that our glass is both half full and half empty. We continue to face tremendous internal challenges," Trichet said. "But they are surmountable, because we have already demonstrated that we can do it."

"We Europeans simply have to believe in ourselves more strongly," he said.

Source: Xinhua