Brussels, 23/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - In its monthly bulletin published on Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) indirectly criticised certain aspects of the budgetary policies of France and Germany, asserting that "it is important that the stability programmes are founded on clearly defined measures and realistic hypotheses with regard to conjunctive developments and sufficiently ambitious improvement plans". It has therefore implicitly criticised France for refusing the call to get back to budgetary balance in 2006. The appeal for "realistic hypotheses" is indirectly addressed to Germany, whose official forecast for growth in 2003 is 1.5M but which the economists judge as too optimistic. Berlin is expected to reduce its forecasts to 1% but even this goal is now considered as too ambitious. The ECB is also discretely tackling the increase in taxes and other charges decided on by the German government for reducing its deficit, writing that, "governments must stress improvement politicise that help growth in an effort to strengthen productive capacity. The effectiveness of these polices is optimal when they are an integral part of the overall reform strategy based on structural reduction of public spending". In other words, the ECB is recommending that the countries find a way of reducing their deficits in or to avert tax rises that could damage economic activity, as well as reduce public spending.