TOKYO: The United States is making progress on getting its fiscal house in order though much more needs to be done, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told fellow financial leaders Saturday. The comment came just hours after the US government announced that the budget deficit had topped $1 trillion for a fourth straight year despite a modest improvement thanks to stronger economic growth.

“It is important that we in the US enact a balanced framework to bring down our fiscal deficit and debt over several years, while continuing to provide support for jobs and growth in the short term,” Geithner told a meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee during the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank, which is being held in Tokyo.

The Treasury Department said Friday that the deficit for the 2012 budget year totaled $1.1 trillion, though a 6.4 percent increase in tax revenues thanks to stronger growth helped contain the deficit. The risk of the US running into a “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and deep spending cuts next year unless the Obama administration and Congress resolve a deadlock over the budget has overshadowed the gathering of top financial officials. Such a prospect would deal a heavy blow to the economy, eroding progress made since the 2008 global crisis.

The overwhelming emphasis of the Tokyo gathering has been on coddling fragile growth around the globe. On Friday, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde urged that countries not sacrifice growth for the sake of austerity. The pace of government debt reduction must be tempered by spending to help get the unemployed back to work, she said.

Balancing those sometimes competing priorities is the central puzzle facing policymakers as the world economy slows further, even in dynamic Asia, Lagarde said.

Greece, Spain and other European countries laboring under massive debts have slashed spending and raised taxes, seeking to restore confidence in their public finances.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/14th-Oct-12