German exporters coping with strong euro - BGA

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's export sector is coping with the euro's strength, high oil prices and a weakened U.S. economy, and foreign trade should grow by 5 percent this year, the head of the BGA exporters' group said.

BGA President Anton Boerner told the Handelsblatt daily that expanding markets like Russia and China meant foreign trade would make a contribution to German economic growth this year.

"Companies in Germany are unsettled, but they are not yet feeling direct effects," he said, with regard to the euro's strength, the high oil price and the weakened U.S. market.

"We also don't need to fear a stop in investment," he said.

The euro EUR= hit a record high of $1.5905 last week.

The head of Germany's DIHK chambers of industry and commerce was quoted by Handelsblatt as saying he expected Germany would not suffer similar credit approval problems to those being felt in the United States.

"Even if individual credit institutes have problems, the German banking system remains on a solid footing," DIHK President Ludwig Georg Braun told the paper.

Wolfgang Franz, a member of the government's panel of economic advisers, said on German radio he hoped the economy could meet the government's growth forecast for this year of 1.7 percent. Last year, the economy grew by 2.5 percent.

Companies had enjoyed good profits last year and many were in a position to finance investments themselves, Franz said, adding: "But I can very well imagine that some companies are suffering from credit restrictions."

Martin Kannegiesser, president of industrial employers group Gesamtmetall, said: "Banks are finding it difficult to give firms credit for investments."

"That could cost growth," Kannegiesser told the mass-selling daily Bild newspaper.

(Reporting by Paul Carrel, editing by Mike Peacock)