WASHINGTON, April 21: US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned on Thursday that the long-term federal budget picture is unlikely to improve unless Congress takes “major deficit-reducing actions.” Greenspan said the impending wave of baby boomer retirements underlines the need for action. In testimony prepared for delivery to the Senate Budget Committee, he said projecting future Social Security costs is relatively simple but that the uncertainty about future medical spending is daunting.

Greenspan said economic activity this year “appears to

be expanding at a reasonably good pace” but that “the positive short-term economic outlook is playing out against a backdrop of concern about the prospects for the federal budget, especially over the longer run.”—AFP