por admin » Mié Jun 09, 2010 9:30 am
Bernanke advierte sobre el deficit de US
La economia continuara creciendo este anio y el proximo pero no sera suficiente para arreglar el mercado laboral y para recortar el deficit en el presupuesto, dijo Bernanke.
Bernanke pidio a los lesgisladores que tomen accion y recorten el deficit y reduzcan el gasto.
Bernanke Issues Deficit Warning
By LUCA DI LEO
The U.S. economy should continued to grow this year and next, but the pace won't be strong enough to fix the jobs market and cut a huge budget deficit, the Federal Reserve chief said Wednesday.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told the House Budget Committee that a continued increase in consumer spending and business investment should make up for a fading government stimulus in lifting the economy.
However, since economic growth alone won't be strong enough to repair the country's finances, Mr. Bernanke once again told U.S. lawmakers that action must be taken to reduce the deficit. He underlined that Europe's sovereign debt woes point to the importance of maintaining sound government finances.
"To avoid sharp, disruptive shifts in spending programs and tax policies in the future, and to retain the confidence of the public and the markets, we should be planning now how we will meet these looming budgetary challenges," Mr. Bernanke said in prepared remarks.
In several congressional hearings this year, Mr. Bernanke has warned lawmakers that U.S. budget deficits aren't sustainable. President Barack Obama's 2011 budget proposal forecasts a record deficit of $1.6 trillion, or 10.6% of gross domestic product, the highest level since World War II. The government plans to reduce that to 3.9% of GDP by fiscal 2014, but that would still be above the 3.0% of GDP that economists consider sustainable.
Although markets have until now been worrying about the euro zone's sovereign debt problems, the U.S. is arguably in a worst situation. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts that the U.S. budget deficit will still be at 8% of GDP in 2011 after hitting 9.3% of GDP in 2009. For the euro area, the OECD sees the deficit remaining around 4.0% of GDP through 2011.
Even though Greek debt is expected to balloon to more than 130% of GDP next year, the average of the euro area should see public debt levels closer to 93% of GDP, according to the OECD. In the U.S., the gross general government debt, which includes also state and local debt, is seen rising to 100% of GDP in 2011.
Bernanke said the U.S. enjoys a "uniquely favored position" because of a large and flexible economy and financial markets that are deep and liquid.
He said the U.S. budget deficit should narrow over the next few years as the economy and financial markets continue to recover. But without further policy actions that won't be enough, Mr. Bernanke warned, because the economy's recovery is expected to remain moderate.
The Fed chairman said the recovery won't be fast enough to put 8 million people back to work in a short period. He also cautioned the housing market remains soft.
U.S. retail sales unexpectedly rose in April, the most recent month for which figures are available, and the previous two months were revised up slightly. Sales have been rising at a sustained pace for seven months in a row now, outpacing job and income growth.
Some of that demand, however, was likely driven by the government's home-buyer tax credit, which expired at the end of April. Building material and garden supply store sales posted the largest gain of any category.
Housing, one of the worst-hit sectors following the recession, could weaken again due to the end of the tax credit, which helped spur demand for new and existing home sales in April.
"A variety of projections that extrapolate current policies and make plausible assumptions about the future evolution of the economy show a structural budget gap that is both large relative to the size of the economy and increasing over time," Mr. Bernanke warned lawmakers.