BUSINESS

Obama asks Americans to cut costs

By Lalit K Jha in Washington
March 25, 2009 16:50 IST
Faced with over $1 trillion fiscal deficit, US President Barack Obama has said Americans need to reduce expenditure and cut costs, or else India and China will outperform them.

Pointing out that there are no easy solutions for the recession-hit US economy, Obama said, "It will take many months and many different solutions to lead us out (of recession)... There are no quick fixes and there are no silver bullets".

Obama said his administration inherited a whopping fiscal deficit of $1.3 trillion from his predecessor. While it would take a long time to fix the structural deficit, US must bend the curve on these wide fiscal gaps, he added.

Otherwise, Obama warned, "... we will allow China or India or other countries to lap our young people in terms of their performance. We will settle on lower growth rates, and we will continue to contract both as an economy and our ability to provide a better life for our kids".

On China's concern over the value of the US dollar as a global currency, he said, "... the dollar is extra-ordinarily strong right now... because investors consider the United States the strongest economy in the world, with the most stable political system in the world.

"I don't believe that there is a need for global currency".

Lalit K Jha in Washington
Source: PTI
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