Economy, Deficit | featured news

French President Francois Hollande has set himself a deadline to turn around the economy by the end of 2014, but having hamstrung the effort with tax rises to meet deficit targets, economists doubt his growth goals will ever fly.

The European Union will call on China this week to boost domestic demand and on the United States and Japan to tackle their public deficits as part of global efforts to rebalance growth, an EU document showed.

The Pentagon, trying to free up cash in the face of a yawning U.S. deficit, unveiled a series of cost-cutting measures on Wednesday that will shed thousands of jobs and shut down an entire military command.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Sunday disputed claims that allowing a portion of the Bush tax cuts to expire will choke economic growth, saying the government needs to do the "responsible" thing and show the world it is capable of tackling the deficit.

The new estimates paint a grim unemployment picture as the economy experiences a relatively jobless recovery.

President Barack Obama renewed his pledge on Saturday to make job creation his top priority in 2010 but said it was also critical to rein in a record budget deficit that threatened economic recovery.

The deficit is the largest relative to the size of the economy since 1945, underscoring the challenge to shrink the fiscal gap even as the White House considers more steps to stimulate a slow recovery.

The estimate, an increase from $7.1 trillion, was blamed on the unexpectedly deep economic downturn.