Global economy back on track: Obama
US President Barack Obama said today that the global economy is “back on the path to recovery”, although he and his G20 summit partners must work further to resolve differences over trade and currency issues.
Mr Obama said he needed “extra time” to reach agreement with long-time ally South Korea on a new free-trade agreement. He said he “wasn’t interested in making an announcement” just to send a signal of success and said he believed any such pact could – and must – be a “win-win” deal for the US.
On the global economy, Mr Obama said that while improvements had been made in a number of areas, he and other leaders recognised “progress hasn’t come quickly enough”, particularly in the area of job creation.
“We have a recovery,” he said when asked about lingering high joblessness in America.
“It needs to be speeded up. Government cannot hire back the eight million people that lost jobs,” he said. “That needs to be done by the private sector.”
Mr Obama rejected suggestions that he had been weakened on the world stage by election losses at home. He said that leaders around the world – particularly in Asia – were eager to work with America on economic and security matters.
Asked about continuing differences with China over what the US considers as unfair trade and currency practices, Mr Obama said he had long spoken out for a growing and vibrant China.
“It is undervalued. And China spends enormous amounts of money intervening in the market to keep it undervalued,” he said of China’s currency.
