Barack Obama tells EU: boost growth now or face a global crisis
Source: The Guardian
Barack Obama tells EU: boost growth now or face a global crisis
Germany to be urged to ease austerity during G8 talks as fears of
global recession grow
Larry Elliott, Jill Treanor, Nicholas Watt and Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 May 2012 20.49 BST
Barack Obama is to put pressure on Germany to ease the pain of austerity with policies to boost growth, as he uses two days of talks with the G8 industrial nations to warn Europe it needs to act swiftly to spare the world economy from a second deep recession in four years.
Ahead of the G8 summit, at Camp David this weekend, a warning from the ratings agency Fitch that Greece's days in the single currency could be numbered heightened fears in Washington that the worsening crisis in the eurozone poses a threat to America's fragile recovery and President Obama's re-election chances.
Obama will welcome the new French president, François Hollande, as a potential ally in his push for Europe to follow the US in giving a higher priority to expansionary policies, and as a counterweight to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
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