US Treasury Secretary Remains Optimistic Over Economy

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

14 August 2002

The American economy is unlikely to fall back into recession, according to US Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill.

Speaking to the Associated Press on Monday, O'Neill expressed confidence that the current stock market turbulence - created in part by the spate of recent corporate accounting scandals - can be overcome, despite the fact that some economists have predicted sluggish growth in the second half of this year, while others have warned that any further scandals in corporate America could push the economy into a 'double dip' recession.

'The fundamentals of the economy, I continue to believe, are sound,' the Treasury Secretary told the AP, adding that: 'As I travel around and talk to people in communities, I find people are more calm than one would assume.'

'At the moment, I don't see a double dip out there,' he concluded, before calling on Congress to make last year's tax cuts permanent.

O'Neill reiterated this message of confidence at the President's Economic Forum in Texas yesterday, announcing that: 'Our estimates now show that without that tax relief, the recession would have been deeper and the recovery slower.'

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