US economy is now growing: Obama

Friday, 15 October 2010 18:22 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

WASHINGTON: As a consequence of the steps taken by his Administration, US President Barack Obama said that the US economy is now growing and more jobs are now being created, although there is a long way to go. “Whereas the economy was contracting when I came into office, it’’s now growing.

We’’ve seen job growth for nine consecutive months in the private sector,” Obama said while responding to a question at a youth town hall meeting. The President said that most of the lay offs have taken place in the state and local government sectors as they have witnessed huge drop in their tax revenues.

“So, they’’ve laid off teachers and firefighters and police officers. And last month, that was where most of the job losses happened.

Now, that’’s, again, behind us. He said, to move forward he has to make sure that small businesses that account for most of the job growth in the US economy were getting the kind of financing that they needed.

“That’’s why I passed legislation just a couple of months ago that helps small businesses get loans and lowers their taxes, eliminates capital gains for startup companies, so that if you’’re young entrepreneurs out here and want to start a business, you’’re going to be able to do so with a lot more advantages than before we made some of these changes,” the President said. He said that there was a need to rebuild the infrastructure in the country.

“Because we used to have the best bridges, the best roads, the best airports. And now, when you go to China or you go to Europe, you see that they are outstripping us in terms of infrastructure.

“And if we put people back to work, that would be good not only in the short term, but it would also lay the foundation, the framework for long-term economic and job growth,” Obama said.