Biden Says US Leading in Economic Growth but Must Invest in Infrastructure

 

WASHINGTON, January 23 (Sputnik) — The rate of US economic growth is projected to be greater than the rest of the international community but the United States still faces major deficits in basic economic infrastructure, US Vice President Joe Biden said at a Thursday meeting of the US Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC.

“The only country in the world expected to continue to grow, they [the International Monetary Fund] estimate growth rates at over 3.6 percent in the next two years,” Biden said of IMF projections for US economic growth. “Every other part of the world, all of our competitors, their growth rate is being cut in half or is below zero.”

Despite the expanding US economy, Biden cited an American Society of Engineers report of a US infrastructure debt amounting to over $3 trillion. “We need $3.2 trillion to upgrade and maintain our infrastructure in the next ten years,” Biden said. He also cited US transportation infrastructure which is ranked as 26th in the world.

Biden elaborated a plan for financing US infrastructure raised by US President Barack Obama in the State of the Union address on Tuesday. This included reforming US tax code laws, including corporate tax reform. The vice president also cited the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as contributing to the decline in the US deficit.

The IMF recently published its global growth projections, lowering projected global growth rates in the next two years by a third of a percentage point, according to recent statements by the Chief Economist at the IMF. Only the United States showed promise of notable growth, IMF said.