Angela Merkel, the chancellor-in-waiting, reassured business leaders of her credentials as an economic ref­ormer on Thursday and told them that the week’s turmoil had increased the pressure on Germany’s largest parties to make their grand coalition a success.

She told the annual BDA employers’ congress in Berlin that pension and labour market reforms were important goals. Germany’s economic “destiny” would be determined by whether her government brought the budget deficit back in line with European Union fiscal rules. Coalition talks between Ms Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democrats appeared on the verge of collapse this week following the resignation of Franz Müntefering as SPD chairman and the withdrawal of Edmund Stoiber, Bavaria’s premier, from the cabinet.