US president Barack Obama has asked major economic powers across the world to come up with fiscal stimulus packages which could boost demand in these countries.
This is important, Obama argued on Thursday in his conversation with reporters of regional American newspapers, as the collapse of worldwide demand costs American jobs and American businesses.
"So we want to work with other countries to make sure that they're promoting the kinds of fiscal stimulus packages that can boost demand in their countries," Obama said according to the transcripts released by the White House.
"It's important that we don't fall into a protectionist mentality so that each country, even as it's stimulating, is also still promoting the kinds of trade that can help us all grow," Obama argued.
"Up until a few months ago, exports were one of the few bright spots in our economy," he said.
Obama said he would discuss the issue with world leaders during the G20 summit, which he is going to attend in London next month.
The agenda of G-20 summit is also about the adverse impact that this global economic slowdown is having on the poorest of the poor, he said.
As the treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, is now headed off to the G20 finance minister's meeting as a precursor to our G20 meeting, Obama said, "What we specifically talked about was, number one, our economic recovery is linked up to the economic recovery of the rest of the world, and vice versa."
"I think we have all of the above -- a moral, national security, and economic interest in making sure that people in those countries are not suffering even more than they were already suffering, because that can be profoundly destabilising in all sorts of ways," Obama said.
