Brakes on recession; thrust on growth now: Obama

I / Washington August 8, 2009, 11:32 IST

The US President Barack Obama today said that though his administration has been successful in putting a brake on recession, but the country has a long way to go to lay a strong foundation for a thriving economy.     

"We must lay a new foundation for future growth and prosperity," Obama argued in his weekly radio address to the nation.    

Stating that July month's job numbers are an indication that the "worst may be behind us," Obama said, "...This job numbers are a sign that we've begun to put the brakes on this recession..."     

He said: "We received better news than we expected about the state of our economy. We learned that we lost 2,47,000 jobs in July, some 2,00,000 fewer jobs lost than in June, and far fewer than the nearly 7,00,000 a month we were losing at the beginning of the year."

Of course, this is a little comfort to the millions of Americans who are looking for work. "And I will not rest until anyone who's looking for work can find a job," he asserted.   

"But we must do more than rescue our economy from this immediate crisis; we must rebuild it stronger than before," said the US President.