Tag Archives: David Lawder

Reuters: Paulson on Mideast USD pegs

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Maybe the weak USD is causing him to have second thoughts on preventing CBs and monetary authorities from accumulating USDs to keep their currencies low and support their exporters?

Ending dollar peg won’t solve Gulf inflation: Paulson

by David Lawder

(Reuters) U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Saturday the dollar peg for currencies in the Middle East had served those countries well and any changes to the peg would be a sovereign matter.

Paulson, on a visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, also told a news conference the current level of oil prices were a burden on economies and consumers around the world.

Asked about the dollar peg, Paulson said:

“That is a sovereign decision … The dollar peg, I think, has served this country (Saudi Arabia) and this region well.”

Paulson earlier met Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf to discuss a range of issues including the oil market, the U.S. and Saudi economies and issues related to foreign exchange.


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Government spending may be accelerating

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US Jan budget surplus narrows as spending hits record

by David Lawder

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – The U.S. government posted a $17.84 billion budget surplus for January, less than half the year-earlier surplus, as spending hit a record for the month while receipts fell from a year ago, the U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday.

The January surplus narrowed compared to a year-earlier surplus of $38.24 billion and also missed the $23.5 billion surplus forecast by economists polled by Reuters.

A Treasury spokeswoman said January is more often a deficit-producing month, with January deficits in 34 of the past 53 years.

Federal outlays last month grew to $237.38 billion — a record for the month of January — from $222.37 billion in January 2007.

Might be back on the 7% growth trend as 2007 spending my have been delayed and moved forward to 2008.

But after years of consistently strong year-on-year growth, government tax receipts dipped to $255.22 billion in January from $260.61 billion from the same month a year earlier.

Could be a sign of economic weakness.

I don’t have the details yet – there can be a lot more to these numbers than the headlines indicate.

Economic data has shown a substantial slowing of the U.S. economy in recent weeks, including a decline of 17,000 non-farm jobs in January. The White House has forecast that the full-year budget deficit will more than double to $410 billion this year due to the revenue slowdown and a $152 billion in fiscal stimulus spending package.

Now a $169 billion package.

The deficit for the first four months of fiscal 2008, which began Oct. 1, widened to $87.70 billion, from a $42.17 billion budget gap for the same period a year earlier. (Reporting by David Lawder; editing by Gary Crosse)

Government spending and exports now supporting GDP and offsetting some of the consumer weakness.

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