President Barack Obama said the US economy was headed in the right direction after government figures Friday showed a smaller contraction than expected in the second quarter, according to dpa. The Commerce Department earlier said the economy shrank at a 1- per-cent annual rate in the April-June period compared to a revised 6.4-per-cent drop in the first three months of the year. "The economy has done measurably better than we thought," Obama said, calling the growth figures "an important sign that the economy is headed in the right direction." Obama said he was "guardedly optimistic," but warned that more job cuts were still on the way. The jobless rate currently sits at 9.5 per cent. July unemployment numbers are due out next week. Obama said the improvement in GDP was "directly attributable" to the government's policies, specifically a 787-billion-dollar fiscal stimulus package that was approved in February.
