Obama in call for more spending cuts
The Age
Monday February 15, 2010
Eurozone remains 'fragile'ROME. The global economy is recovering but is especially "fragile" in the eurozone, Bank of Italy Governor Mario Draghi says."The return to growth is fragile, particularly in the euro area," Draghi told a meeting of bank executives in southern Naples.Employment trends are weak and "credit conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises are still tight and hindering recovery," added Draghi, who as a member of the European Central Bank's Governing Council also votes on eurozone interest rates.Mr Draghi is among the front-runners to replace ECB chief Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet in November 2011.The remarks came after the Eurostat data agency said on Friday that economic growth in the 16-nation eurozone was a meagre 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 over the previous quarter, far slower than the 0.4 per cent growth in the third quarter.The figures showed that recovery in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, had ground to a halt, while the Italian economy went back into contraction. Economic growth in France, however, accelerated in the fourth quarter.Toyota ute recallNEW YORK. Toyota has recalled about 8000 of its Tacoma utilities over faulty drive shafts, a US government official said. This follows a series of recalls mainly over accelerator and brake problems.The shafts were built by supplier Dana Corp from December until early this month, the official said.Dana sent the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration a recall notice on Thursday, saying it would handle the shaft recall on vehicles built for Ford, Toyota and Nissan, the official said.This was "because they had discovered a defect in their manufacturing process", the official said."So it looks like, out of caution, Toyota decided to submit its own recall notification to us because, technically, the vehicle manufacturer is responsible for recalls."Toyota has recalled millions of vehicles due to problems linked to accelerator and brake functions.Those recalls cover models with "sticky accelerators" that cause cars to race out of control, a defect cited in several deadly crashes, and has widened to brake system problems in the Toyota Prius and other hybrid models.WASHINGTON. US President Barack Obama has called for new spending cuts, warning the country must bring its ballooning deficit under control."Even as we make critical investments to create jobs today and lay a foundation for growth tomorrow €” by cutting taxes for small businesses, investing in education, promoting clean energy, and modernising our roads and railways €” we have to continue to go through the budget line by line, looking for ways to save," Obama said in his weekly radio address on Saturday."We have to cut where we can, to afford what we need."The Obama administration acknowledged earlier this month that the budget deficit will swell to a record $US1.556 trillion ($A1.75 trillion).
© 2010 The Age
