Stimulus plans to show effect by end of 2009

European Central Bank Executive Board member Juergen Stark said yesterday that stimulus packages recently unveiled by eurozone governments should begin to have a beneficial effect by the end of the year.

"I expect the economic packages to show their effect by the end of this year. This means the downward economic trend will stopped and we will see stabilisation," he said in an interview with Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.

Financially strained governments need to start thinking about ways to repair the situation once the worst of the crisis is over, he said.