Petróleo sob pressão após ataque dos EUA ao Irão

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Reuters
Snow Optimistic About Economic Growth
Thursday July 10, 2:16 am ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newly enacted tax cuts combined with low interest rates have put the U.S. economy on a path toward growth, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said in an interview published on Thursday.
Snow told USA Today he expected U.S. growth to top three percent in the second half of the year. But he said he would like to see growth of around four percent to bring the unemployment rate below six percent.

"The economy is beautifully aligned for takeoff," Snow told the newspaper, noting the stimulative effect of the Bush administration's latest $350 billion tax-cut program and historically low interest rates.

"We've got companies tight as a drum with their inventories, and we've seen this enormous cost takeout from our businesses, which means that when the economy comes back there will be high profitability," Snow said.

Snow is scheduled to meet European finance officials next week in Britain and Germany and said he planned to tell European leaders they must do more to jump-start their lagging economies.

"I want to talk to them about the consequences of their weak growth rates on us, on our deficit and the importance of having stronger domestic economies so they can buy more," Snow said, referring to the overall trade deficit.

Snow reiterated that there was no confusion about U.S. backing for a strong dollar and said he and President Bush were in full agreement on the policy.

"The president has said he is for a strong dollar. I have said I'm for a strong dollar. There is not any daylight between us. This is a policy that has been repeated and repeated and repeated. There's just no change in it," he said.

The dollar has fallen around 35 percent against the euro in the past 18 months, making U.S.-made goods less expensive on the global market, boosting exports for U.S. firms that might then need to add jobs.

While Snow maintained that the U.S. subscribes to a strong-dollar policy that reflects a strong economy, comments he made this spring that the dollar's decline so far was modest have served to make that policy ring hollow in markets.

Snow also told USA Today that the budget deficit, estimated to be about $400 billion this year, was manageable but not something the administration was comfortable with.

"We also need to have spending discipline, and tight spending discipline is going to be an essential component of bringing those deficits down," he said when asked whether the deficit was becoming an economic or political problem.