Obama defends Federal Reserve over cash boost policy

NEW DELHI: President Barack Obama on Monday defended the Federal Reserve's role in boosting the US economy, following fierce foreign criticism of its "quantitative easing" policy to buy up government debt.

Obama said during a visit to India that the Fed had an independent role in regulating the US economy and he could not order it to act nor comment on its decisions, but he broadly defended the central bank's motivations.

"The Fed's mandate, my mandate is to grow our economy. That is not just good for the United States, that is good for the world as a whole," Obama said, after a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

China, Germany and Brazil have strongly criticised the Federal Reserve's decision to pump more cash into the US economy, ahead of this week's G20 summit in Seoul.

The sluggish American recovery from one of the worst economic crises on record played a key role in Obama's rebuke from voters at mid-term elections last week.