Asian crisis hurting U.S.

Asian crisis hurting U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters): U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, in a taped television interview aired yesterday, said the U.S. economy remained strong but that financial crises in Asia and in other markets was a growing threat.

"This financial instability is significantly affecting the American economy," Rubin told ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview taped last week.

"It's reducing overall growth."

But he added, "Having said that, the underlying economy of demand-growth and production remains very strong."

Rubin declined to comment on stock market levels.

"I think it's very hard to know what markets are going to do, and I also think that somebody who is Secretary of the Treasury ought not comment," he said.

Rubin also repeated that he plans to remain in his job for some time.

Rubin, a former Wall Street financier, was appointed Treasury Secretary in January 1995, in the middle of Mexico's financial crisis.