Emerging markets offer lessons for US: Bernanke

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
© AFP/Getty Images/File Chip Somodevilla

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Emerging economies have important lessons like fiscal discipline and investment in education that the United States should re-learn, US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday.

“Advanced economies like the United States would do well to re-learn some of the lessons from the experiences of the emerging-market economies,” he said in a speech in Cleveland, Ohio, a text of which was provided to the media.

The Fed chief listed fiscal discipline, undertaking necessary public investments, promotion of education and technology, and regulations that encourage growth and innovation while maintaining financial stability as important strengths of the emerging economies.

“A successful development framework must take into account that activities such as the adaptation of advanced technologies and the harnessing (of) economies of scale are often critical to economic growth and depend on a host of institutional conditions, such as an educated workforce, to be fully effective,” he said.

US politicians are battling over the need to cut spending at various levels of government versus the need to invest in education, infrastructure and job creation.