US economy has bottomed: George Soros

By Edward Krudy

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. economy has hit bottom and the current quarter will see positive growth due to the government's stimulus spending, billionaire financier George Soros said on Tuesday.

"I think it (the stimulus) has made a difference, the economy has actually bottomed and I think we are facing a positive quarter, and I think that is largely due to the stimulus," he said in an interview with Reuters Television in New York.

The Obama administration is pumping $787 billion into the economy in a bid to turn around the deepest recession since the 1930s. The U.S. economy shrank by 1 percent in the second quarter after tumbling 6.4 percent in the quarter before that, the biggest decline since 1982.

Soros said he did not believe the economy needed more stimulus money, despite calls for a second round of spending. Notably, in July, House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the U.S. should be open to more government spending if needed.

Also on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama sounded a cautious note, saying the economy is "not out of the woods" despite signs lagging business investment was reviving. Last week the White House said there are no plans for a second stimulus package.

Back in June Soros said the United States faces a "stop-go" economy because rising borrowing costs could generate major headwinds for the still-fragile economy. Soros is Chairman of Soros Fund Management.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Andrew Hay)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved.

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