The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said the euro zone debt crisis is far from over.
In a recorded New Year address to be broadcast this evening, she urged Germans to be patient and warned that economic conditions could be more difficult next year.
The German Chancellor also said the state must watch over the market to prevent the excesses that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
Merkel used her New Year's speech broadcast to warn that the lessons of the market collapse five years ago have not been fully learned yet.
The German chancellor said that greater international efforts are needed to control financial markets and prevent the "irresponsibility" that began when the US subprime mortgage bubble burst.
Merkel warned that reforms agreed to by governments to end the subsequent European sovereign debt crisis would require patience.
