VOA慢速英语2010年-Economics Report - Obama Looks to Expo

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

The International Monetary¹ Fund has raised its prediction for world economic growth to four and six-tenths percent this year. That is a half-percentage point higher than the estimate in April.

The IMF credited expansion in Asia and growing demand in the United States. But the lender's chief economist² also warned that "downside risks have risen sharply."

President Obama talked this week about the importance of building exports as a way to create jobs and economic growth at home.

BARACK OBAMA: "American exports grew almost seventeen percent over the first four months of this year, compared to the same period last year. Part of this, of course, is due to the global recovery. But we are also moving forward on improving conditions for America’s exporters."

Mr. Obama re-launched the President's Export Council. The group includes business and labor³ leaders who will advise on trade issues.

Last week the government reported that private employers added only eighty-three thousand jobs in June. Unemployment remains⁴ high even after six months of job growth. As the president points out, there are still five unemployed⁵ workers for each job opening.

President Obama speaking Wednesday at the White House about exports, jobs and the economy. With him were Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, left, and Jim McNerney Jr., chief executive officer of Boeing.

Export-related jobs, he said, pay fifteen percent more than average. In two thousand eight, American exports supported almost seven percent of all jobs, including one-third of jobs in manufacturing.

In January, in his State of the Union speech, President Obama promised to double exports in five years. In his comments Wednesday, he said the United States must work to remove trade barriers and open new markets.

BARACK OBAMA: “Ninety-five percent of the world’s customers and fastest-growing markets are beyond our borders. So if we want to find new growth streams, if we want to find new markets and new opportunity, we have got to compete for those new customers, because other nations are competing for those new customers.”

He said the United States offers some of the world’s lowest barriers to trade -- and expects free and fair access to other countries in return.

In late June, the World Trade Organization ruled that Airbus received billions in illegal European aid. The ruling was a victory for its American competitor Boeing.

American lawmakers have also long complained that China suppresses the value of the yuan to lower the price of its exports. China recently promised to let the yuan trade more freely against the dollar.

China passed Germany to become the world’s top exporting country last year. The United States was third.

Some American companies have been doing well in developing markets. For the first time, General Motors has announced higher sales in China, the world's largest car market, than in the United States.

And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report, by Mario Ritter with Kent Klein. I’m Steve Ember
 

1 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。