U.S. President Bush said in Chicago on Monday that recent economic indicators have become "increasingly mixed," but he insisted the economy is resilient and the United States is still the most prosperous nation in the world.
"We have a strong foundation in our economy, but we cannot take economic growth for granted," the president told business leaders in Chicago.
"I'm sure you know what I know, that many Americans are anxious about our economy. And this, frankly, is not unprecedented," he said, referring to the recession in the early months of his administration, terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and natural disasters.
"In seven years, we've had experience in dealing with anxiety," said Bush, adding "Every time, our economy absorbed those shocks. We dealt with them, and managed to grow and prosper."
In other words, "this is a resilient economy because we rely on the free enterprise system. Our economy is flexible. It is -- it is -- motivates people to take risk," he said.
The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that the nation's unemployment rate rose to 5 percent, its highest level since November 2005. And the non farm payrolls rose by 18,000 in December, the weakest increase since August 2003.
The data aroused investors' worries that a weakening job market will hurt consumer spending and thus triggered the economic recession if consumers can not depend on a solid job market.
"Recent economic indicators have become increasingly mixed," said Bush, but noting that what he learned from the news was that the U.S. economy has had and now had 52 months of uninterrupted job growth.
"That's a record. That's the longest period of job creation on record," he said, adding the core inflation is low, consumer spending is strong, yet housing values are declining.
"The mixed report only reinforces the need for sound policies in Washington D.C., policies which do not create more regulation and create more lawsuits. The policies include opening new markets for U.S. goods and services," he said.
Bush also admitted that there is no quick fix for high energy prices. "As a matter of fact, I signed good legislation passed by Republicans and Democrats that enable us to begin to diversify away from oil and gas. And that's good," he said.
But he noted that the diversification is not going to happen overnight.
"We ought to be exploring for more oil and gas in the United States of America, and I'm convinced we can do this so in environmentally friendly ways," said the president.
Bush made no mention of the fact that he and his advisers have been discussing whether a short-term stimulus package may be necessary.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Bush wants more time and more information before making a final decision about what, if anything to do.
"He wants to look at the data. He hasn't made a final decision," Fratto said. He also voiced disagreement with Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton's prediction that a recession was looming.
"I don't know of anyone predicting a recession," Fratto said, adding he acknowledged concerns about the housing sector and oil prices but he also knew inflation was relatively low and exports were rising.
Source:Xinhua
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