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IMF Chief: Job Creation as Important as Growth Rate

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Job creation was as important as economic growth rate, while the economic recovery pace in different regions of the world was uneven, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said here on Tuesday.

The IMF chief made the remarks at a media roundtable prior to the upcoming IMF and World Bank annual meetings.

He believed that it was not only the economic growth rate that counted, "but we should also stress creating more jobs."

In response to a Xinhua question about the current global economic recovery scenario, he said in many parts of the world, " the light is shining," adding that in China and other emerging markets, the rebalancing of economies that relied more on domestic demand was underway starting a couple of years ago.

The IMF chief said last September that despite the financial crisis, "we can see light at the end of the tunnel."

He told a group of reporters "I don't see global problems," and that China, other Asian as well as Latin American economies were doing well. One of the main concerns is that some European economies did not bounce back quick enough.

Strauss-Kahn said that the risk of a jobless recovery still existed, adding that the question was "how many jobs we could provide."

Although some economies were experiencing stronger recoveries, some advanced economies were still struggling with high-rate unemployment and sagging business confidence.

The IMF chief added that the possibility of a "currency war" was not big, but that's part of the downside risk.

The former finance minister of France stressed the importance of global financial stability supervision and surveillance in a bid to reduce possible risks.

The Washington-based agency announced on Monday that it would require 25 major economies with financial sectors that have the greatest impact on global financial stability to go through in- depth mandatory financial stability exams every five years to prevent possible global financial turmoil.

The annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group this year were scheduled to take place in early October in Washington D.C..

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2010)

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