US says world needs more demand for economic recovery

[WASHINGTON] The United States on Wednesday urged the world's policymakers to use available fiscal policy to boost demand in the short term and support the sluggish global economic recovery.

"In the short term, the world fundamentally needs more demand," US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said, according to prepared remarks at the World Affairs Council in Seattle.

Mr Lew, speaking ahead of the meeting of the Group of Twenty major economies in Australia this week, said policymakers should also pursue structural reforms to boost economic growth in the longer-term.

But he cautioned it was still unclear whether such reforms will be enough in the case of Japan, which has launched a massive economic program to boost growth and pull its economy from damaging deflation.

REUTERS