– This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on November 21, Monday.
Welcome to CNBC Business Daily, I'm Qian Chen.
Angela Merkel who has steered Germany through several global crises as its first woman leader, says she will seek a fourth term as Germany's chancellor in general elections next year.
Speaking after a meeting with high-ranking members of her center-right party, Merkel told reporters Sunday night that "I literally thought about this decision endlessly ... but I am ready to run for office again."
If the 62-year-old Merkel wins next year and serves the entire four-year term, she would match her one-time mentor Helmut Kohl's post-war record of 16 years in office.
However, her decision last year to open Germany's borders to around 900,000 migrants, mostly from war zones in the Middle East, angered many voters and hit her personal ratings.
Her party has slumped in regional elections in the last year while support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) has swelled.
In September, after a heavy defeat for the CDU in a Berlin state election, a humbled Merkel surprised the country by saying she wished she could turn the clock back on the migrant crisis, though she stopped short of saying her policy was a mistake.
The conservative is widely seen as a stabilizing force in Europe at a time of uncertainty after Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. president.
A pragmatist, Merkel has steered Europe's biggest economy through the financial crisis and the euro zone debt crisis and has won respect internationally - U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday described her as an "outstanding" ally.
Merkel's Christian Democrats were beaten into third place by the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a north-eastern state election in September.
The upstart AFD took 21.9 percent of the vote behind the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) in their first election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
In September, Merkel's approval rating has plunged to a five-year low of 45 percent, down from 67 percent a year ago, due to spreading disenchantment with her open-door policies on refugees.
However, polls are coming back after that for Merkel... the latest result puts her conservative bloc around 10 points ahead of its nearest rivals, the Social Democrats (SPD), with whom she shares power.
Many pollsters see another 'grand coalition' as the most likely option after the September election, although the rise of the AfD makes coalition arithmetic more complicated.
CNBC Qian Chen, reporting from Singapore.