Germany will keep "all options open" to tackle the economic crisis, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said yesterday, raising the likelihood that Berlin would top up its fiscal stimulus as Europe's largest economy heads into recession.

The chancellor continues to oppose the deep tax cuts and large-scale fiscal spending advocated by many economists, but the small concession marks an effort to silence swelling scepticism within her Christian Democratic Union about the her decision to postpone tax cuts until after the general election of September 2009.