Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Germany’s Federal Labor Agency currently lacks financial reserves to combat a shock such as a recession, its President Frank-Juergen Weise told Handelsblatt in an interview. The agency would need to draw on the government’s budget in such an event, Weise said.

The Nuremburg-based agency held reserves of 18 billion euros in 2008 at the onset of the international banking crisis, helping it to finance emergency programs, Weise said. At the same time, the agency expects unemployment to continue falling in 2012, Weise said.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brian Parkin at bparkin@bloomberg.net