BERLIN (Reuters) – The European economy is recovering much better than many had feared at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Saturday, adding that governments should nonetheless continue to support companies and consumers.

“The pandemic is not over, but the indicators … show that the economy is recovering much better than we feared some time ago, and that is something that applies to the European Union as a whole but also to the individual member states,” Scholz told reporters at the end of an informal meeting of the 27 EU finance ministers in Berlin.