Palo Alto: White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers said he finds satisfaction in the economy's turnaround from its plunge a year ago.
One has to take "considerable satisfaction in the progress that has been made", Summers, director of President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, said in a speech today at a conference at Stanford University, near Palo Alto, California. "It was not unreasonable 15 months ago to fear a Depression-like pattern. The economy was losing more than half a million jobs a month. GDP declined as rapidly as it has in 50 years in the first quarter."
Summers said the economy should soon witness "a resumption of job growth."
Strengthening
Obama administration officials are trying to strengthen an economy that's lost 8.4 million jobs since December 2007. "Prospects for success look better than they did a year ago," Summers said.
Payrolls declined by 36,000 in February, a smaller drop than the 68,000 median loss forecast by economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the March 5 report. The jobless rate held at 9.7 per cent, higher than the average of 5.7 per cent in the past two decades.
Retail sales unexpectedly climbed 0.3 per cent, the fourth gain in the past five months, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Another report showing consumer sentiment dropped in March for the second consecutive month represented a risk to the improvement in sales.
Earlier Friday, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the US would recover from the recession faster and more vigorously than other advanced economies.
