It is particularly moving, and I can say this also as a Protestant Christian, that a German - one of us - has been made Pope.

The IMF should work with capital markets, not against, ... It is not the function of the IMF to over-regulate but to ensure risks of capital flows from turbulence are contained.

The IMF supports the decision of the Turkish authorities to float the lira,

The euro is heavily undervalued, and in my view it is also clear that intervention cannot be a taboo,

I have not come to the fund to turn it upside down, ... But...there is a further need for change, and even accelerated change.

I trust that the leaders of the poor countries themselves fully recognize the importance of sound policies and good governance, ... A real breakthrough in poverty will be possible only if private saving and investment take firm roots in these countries and if a much larger part of the savings generated in the world becomes available to them.

This is for me a remarkable step forward to bring order in this development and also to have the Iraqi people themselves involved to define an economic strategy for recovery and development,

convinced that Germany was committed to seeing through its modernizing policies, and that the friendship between Germany and France remained the indispensable motor of European construction.

Did eastern Germany not need roads, roofs and factories more than an expensive church? But a group of residents said Dresden needed more. And now we can see that those people were right.

Twenty-five years ago, the world looked to the Gdansk Shipyard where Poles struggled for their rights and freedoms,