Washington  - If massive government action to revive the US economy is successful the recession affecting the world's largest economy could begin to turn around this year, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday.

Testifying before the US Senate Banking Committee, the central bank chairman said the government stimulus is essential to break the cycle of adverse feedback that helps to keep the economy down, even as he warned of ongoing negative pressures.

Washington  - If massive government action to revive the US economy is successful the recession affecting the world's largest economy could begin to turn around this year, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday.

Testifying before the US Senate Banking Committee, the central bank chairman said the government stimulus is essential to break the cycle of adverse feedback that helps to keep the economy down.

Brussels  - The European Union should ease its rules to allow new members to swap their national currency for the euro more rapidly, Hungary's prime minister said Tuesday.

"The best protection against foreign-exchange problems is to join the eurozone ... We should see how the steps towards the euro could be made quicker," Ferenc Gyurcsany told journalists in Brussels.

In particular, countries which have met the EU's strict rules on inflation and budget discipline should be allowed to join the single currency without having to spend two years in the preparatory Exchange Rate Mechanism 2 (ERM 2), he said.

Taipei  - Taiwan posted yet another record slump of 41.67 per cent in export orders in January, as deteriorating global economic conditions further eroded overseas demands, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said Tuesday.

In January, the island received orders worth just 17.68 billion US dollars, down 41.67 per cent year-on-year, following a 33-per-cent decline in December, the ministry said in a statement.

Among Taiwan's export markets, orders from China and Hong Kong - Taiwan's top export destinations - fell a record 54.71 per cent year-on-year to 3.66 billion US dollars.

Washington  - US consumer confidence slid to a new low in February as the world's largest economy continues to battle recession, a private research group said Tuesday.

The New York-based Conference Board said its index of consumer confidence fell to 25.0 in February from 37.4 in January.

The survey of 5,000 households found that the majority of respondents (51.1 per cent) believe business conditions are bad, up from 47.9 per cent last month. About 48 per cent of respondents said jobs were hard to get, up from 41 per cent in January.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama on Monday promised to halve the country's ballooning federal budget deficit by the end of his four-year term in office, despite a deepening recession that has forced his administration to spend record amounts of money.

Obama, who took office in January, inherited a 2008 budget deficit of 1.3 trillion dollars. That figure could top 2 trillion dollars - more than 10 per cent of US gross domestic product - in 2009 in an effort to halt the country's disastrous economic slide.