WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy remains strong, despite high oil prices, a senior Treasury official said Monday.
"Real growth continues to be above trend, the unemployment rate is low and moving down, inflation is low, and the budget situation is improving faster than expected," said Mark Warshawsky, Treasury's assistant secretary for economic policy in a statement to the Treasury borrowing advisory committee.
He added that with continued economic growth and job creation coupled with spending restraint, the Bush "administration's policy is to cut the deficit in half over the next five years to less than 2 percent of GDP."
Warshawsky said the budget deficit in July was about $413 billion, lower than the initial estimate of $445 billion, and "much lower than deficits in the 4.5 to 6 percent of GDP range at various times in the 1980s and 1990s.
