Obama sees ‘beginning of the end’ of recession

RALEIGH: The United States may be seeing ‘the beginning of the end of the recession,’ President Barack Obama said on Wednesday, as the world’s biggest economy combats its worst slump in decades.

‘It’s true that we’ve stopped the freefall. The market is up and the financial system is no longer on the verge of collapse,’ Obama said. ‘So, we may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession.’

Speaking at a town hall in North Carolina, where unemployment is around 10 per cent, Obama cautioned: ‘that’s little comfort if you’re one of the folks who have lost their job and haven’t found another.’

He also questioned the cover of the current edition of Newsweek magazine, which pronounced that ‘The Recession is Over.’

‘I bet you found that news a little startling. I know I did,’ Obama said.

The United States is now losing jobs ‘at nearly half’ the rate of when he took office in January, he added in defending his plans to stimulate the economy.

In an attempt to prod the economy back to recovery, Obama signed a 787-billion-dollar stimulus package in February aimed at ending the worst US economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The US economy has been in recession since December 2007, according to the economic panel accepted as the arbiter of business cycles.

The economy suffered a 5.5 per cent pace of decline in the first quarter, on the heels of a 6.3 per cent slide in the fourth quarter of 2008. But many forecasters are expecting growth to resume in the second half of 2009.

The US Federal Reserve this month raised its outlook for 2009 and 2010 economic output, projecting a rebound in the second half of 2009 that would leave the contraction for the year at between 1.0 and 1.5 per cent.

For 2010, the new Fed outlook saw growth in a range of 2.1 to 3.3 per cent, slightly better than its forecast from April.

The government’s first estimate for gross domestic product in the second quarter to June 30 is to be released on Friday. The consensus forecast by private economists is for a 1.5 per cent rate of decline. —AFP