WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is making a comeback and moving in the right direction after taking an “incredible blow” from the Sept. 11 attacks three years ago, Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Saturday.
The economy in the past year has begun to “get back on its feet and today it’s growing at the fastest pace in 20 years, manufacturing is back, jobs are back,” Snow said in an interview on MSNBC television.
“We’ve had 12 straight months of good job creation, so the economy is back and it’s moving in the right direction,” he added.
Economic figures since the 2001 attacks have shown that while the economy has been in recovery, its pace of growth has been uneven. The most recent statistics said economic growth in the second quarter of 2004 cooled to a 2.8 percent annual rate after surging ahead at a 4.5 percent rate in the first quarter.
The Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania are estimated to have resulted in the loss of 1 million to 1.5 million jobs in the United States, Snow said.
“It was an incredible blow to the American economy. The American economy was beginning in late 2001 to come out of the recession, and then, then this hit us. And it had a devastating effect,” he told MSNBC.
The attacks had “a staggering effect on our confidence, on consumer behavior, an awful lot of uncertainty. Fortunately we’re coming back,” Snow said.
The Treasury Department (news – web sites) is responsible for interdicting and following the flow of terrorist funds and is working with other governments to try and identify suspects, he said.
“Now we have a world community of banks, finance ministers, and central bankers working to interdict the flow of terrorist money,” Snow said.
Source: Yahoo News
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