US Treasury Secretary calls on Europe to cut rates
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US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has called on the European Central Bank needs to cut rates in countries undergoing reform.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Geithner highlighted the work being done to make economies more competitive.
He says: “They need to not just make sure they’re doing reforms to make those economies more competitive, and they need to build a stronger set of institutions on budget disciplines and better management of banking systems.
“But they also have to do some more things to help support growth in the near term. And that means bringing down interest rates in the countries that are reforming and making sure those banking systems can provide the credit those economies need.”
Geithner says the whole world has a huge strategic interest in Europe being stronger “not weakened by a long protracted crisis”.
He adds: “The European crisis is a much more grave risk to the global economy and our own economy, what people call a fiscal cliff is something completely within our control, it’s a political challenge, not an economic challenge, and there are many different ways to make sure that we can manage through that if we can get people to embrace a balanced program of fiscal reform.”
The US Treasury Secretary also conceded that the US needs to grow faster to create jobs and bring unemployment down.
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