Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen has summoned municipal councils for a serious talk about the economy.

“They are going to have to explain what is going on. We are in a situation in which everyone has to be careful in order to get this to work,” Hjort Frederiksen says.

HJort Frederiksen has reacted to the latest statistics which show that over the past year, councils have employed 7,400 new employees, irrespective of the fact that the government and Local Government Denmark have agreed on tight budget management and zero growth in public consumption in 2010.

At the same time, the latest figures from Statistics Denmark show that public consumption increased by 0.8 percent in the second quarter – over the past year it has increased by 2.8 percent.

“We are on the road to keeping spending down in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and so we mustn’t completely fall through this year,” says Hjort Frederiksen, who declines to say whether he will be demanding savings in order to reach zero growth.

“For the moment I want a report. We are analysing the figures and the goal is that they keep to the agreements we have reached,” Hjort Frederiksen says.