WASHINGTON, May 2, 2008 (AFP) – International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Friday that he does not see the US economy recovering from its current doldrums this year. Describing a US government labor report Friday that showed fewer than expected job losses as a “flash in the pan,” the IMF managing director said “the medium-term trend remains what has been forecast and the US economy would not be on the road to recovery before the end of the year.”
The IMF has forecast a “mild recession” in the United States, with annual growth a paltry 0.5 percent.
Strauss-Kahn, speaking to reporters after meeting with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon at IMF headquarters, cautioned that “one must wait to see the next US data.”
The US Labor Department reported US employers cut 20,000 nonfarm jobs in April, far fewer than private economists’ forecasts of 75,000.
The jobless rate fell a tenth of a percentage point to 5.
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0 percent, the department said, instead of the expected rise to 5.2 percent.
While still a weak number, it reinforced the view that the US economy is stabilizing and that the Fed may therefore take a pause in its rate-cutting campaign.
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