More time needed for stimulus plan to work, says Obama

US President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus package needed more time to be effective, and will have a more obvious impact on the economy in the latter half of 2009, reports Reuters.

The plan “was not designed to work in four months — it was designed to work over two years,” Obama said in his weekly radio speech.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner agrees. “I don’t think that’s a judgment we need to make now, can’t really make it now prudently, responsibly,” he said in an interview with CNN.

Obama’s statement was instigated by statistics showing the US unemployment rate at 9.5 percent in June, the highest since 1983.