Skip to footer

Lew: 'need for more action' from other nations to help boost global growth

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Tuesday that the US economy is strengthening, but said he doesn't 'think the United States alone can pull the global economy to where it needs to be.'

|
Susan Walsh/AP
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew listens during an open session of the Financial Stability Oversight Council meeting at the Treasury Department in Washington, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014.
  • By Martin Crutsinger Associated Press

| Washington

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Tuesday that the U.S. economy is strengthening, but he is concerned that other nations are not doing their part to boost global growth.

The United States took decisive steps after the 2008 financial crisis to get its economy growing, he said. In contrast, he described a less determined response by other nations to their own economic problems.

Lew stressed a "need for more action in quite a number of parts of the world," although he didn't single out specific countries.

"I don't think the United States alone can pull the global economy to where it needs to be," Lew said during an appearance at the Peterson Institute to preview this weekend's meetings of the 188-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending agency, the World Bank.

The IMF on Tuesday trimmed its outlook for global growth, reflecting weaker expansions in Europe, Japan and Latin America. It also warned that the United States, Europe and Japan could face years of sluggish growth unless government took steps to accelerate activity.

The U.S. dollar has been strengthening in recent weeks, a development that could harm U.S. growth prospects by making its products less competitive in global markets. At the same time, declines in the value of other global currencies such as the Japanese yen and euro could boost exports in those regions.

"We have called on many countries in the world to take decisive action to get their economies to grow," Lew said in response to a question about whether he had concerns over a strengthening dollar.

Asked specifically about China, Lew said the administration still believed that China's currency was undervalued in relation to the dollar and needed to strengthen further. He said the Chinese government needed to stop intervening in currency markets on a routine basis to lower the value of the yuan.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Lew: 'need for more action' from other nations to help boost global growth
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2014/1007/Lew-need-for-more-action-from-other-nations-to-help-boost-global-growth
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe