US economy not moving fast enough: Obama

Washington, Jun 2: The American

is not moving fast enough although it has made significant progress in the past couple of years,

President

has said amid dismal job addition numbers released yesterday.

"We are moving in the right direction. But we're not moving as fast as we could be," Obama said at a presidential campaign event in his home town of Chicago.

"There's a sense, even with a disappointing jobs report today (Friday) because of what's happening in Europe -- we're now a global economy, it's integrated, so when something happens across the Atlantic or the Pacific it gives us a shock," he said.

Citing turn-around in the auto sector, Obama added, however, that his Administration made right decisions for the growth of the economy although they weren't always popular.

"Because of those decisions, we were out there exporting goods once again all around the world. Because of those decisions, the ship was righted and we started growing again, and started producing jobs again," he said.

The US has seen over 4 million jobs created over the last couple years. In the last six months alone over 800,000 jobs were created, the strongest manufacturing job growth since the 1990s, Obama said.

The President acknowledged that the campaign this time would focus on economy.

"The essence of this campaign is going to be about the economy. It's going to be about how do we create an economy that works for everybody, that is dynamic, that is competitive, that meets the challenges of the 21st century and provides a platform where everybody who's willing to work hard can succeed," he said.

The steps his administration took in 2009 and 2010 have helped to stabilised this economy, Obama said.

He also added that the debate is going to have to extend beyond just how do we solve immediate global economic crisis and "it's going to be how do we make sure that every child is getting the kind of education they need in the 21st century".

It's going to be how the US makes progress on energy independence and clean energy, Obama said

"How we're going to make sure that we are reducing the costs of health care while improving the quality of health care -- because we are still spending 17 or 18 per cent of our GDP on health care," he added.

PTI