EU's top priority must be fighting inflation, says German Finance Minister

BERLIN - The European Union's number one priority must be to fight inflation, and it must exit expansive finance policies and debt, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Monday.

"One can become dependent on public debt. We have to stop the addiction to more and more debt as soon as possible because we cannot give any more financial space to inflation," Lindner told reporters on arrival for a meeting of EU finance officials.

"The return to good, healthy, sustainable public finances is even more urgent in view of inflationary developments than it would anyway be given the interests of the generation of today's grandchildren," he added, speaking in Brussels.