Growth is main challenge faced by world: Geithner

US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner
© AFP/File Nicholas Kamm

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Boosting growth should be the top priority of governments around the world, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday, urging them to adjust their fiscal policies accordingly.

“We should recognize that growth is weaker and governments should do what they should do in that context,” Geithner said.

“They should recognize growth is the major challenge we face around the world,” he said, calling on governments to adjust their economic policies to the “new reality.”

The US economy is currently growing at a rate of about two percent, but that is “too slow for us,” Geithner said at a conference in Washington.

This month, the administration of US President Barack Obama unveiled a $447 billion job creation package aimed at stimulating the economy.

But the bill faces an uncertain future in Congress, and the United States has diverged from other major economies such as Britain which are pursuing austerity programs in a bid to rein in their debt burdens.

“They should be erring on the side of doing more things to help growth more generally, as we are trying to do in the United States,” Geithner said.

His comments came before he was set to meet with his counterparts from the G20 major world economies later on Thursday.