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White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers disputed the idea of a “new normal” of slower growth and higher unemployment popularized by Pacific Investment Management Co.

“It will take time, it will take step-by-step a lot of different elements creating jobs,” Summers said at a forum in Washington last night. “But I see no reason why there should be some new normal idea of the potential growth of the country.”

Summers, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, spoke at a conference on innovation and economic growth co-sponsored by Intel Corp. and the Aspen Institute, a non- partisan policy research organization. He was asked about the “new normal” investment analysis in an interview by Judy Woodruff, host of a Bloomberg Television news show and a senior correspondent for PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.”

Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, which runs the world’s largest bond fund, has forecast what it termed a “new normal” for the global economy that will include heightened government regulation, lower consumption, slower growth and a shrinking role for the U.S. economy.

Summers said that while he anticipates it taking some time for the U.S. economy to recover from the recession, he sees no erosion of the growth potential once an expansion matures amid the right mix of government policies.

“It will take assuring that there are adequate flows of finance, that there is adequate work on the infrastructure of the country, making sure that businesses have the right kind of incentives,” said Summers, who turned 55 yesterday. “There are a lot of things that need to be done. So it will take time to have this expansion mature.”

‘Rebalancing’

Summers also called for a “rebalancing” of the world economy in which U.S. consumers play a less significant role.

“There is no way our import-led growth is going to be the driving force for the rest of the world’s export-led growth going forward,” Summers said.

President Barack Obama and the Democratic congressional majorities in Congress currently face conflicting pressures to stimulate jobs growth and reduce the federal budget deficit. Obama is to host a “jobs summit” with economists, business leaders and union officials on Dec. 3 to discuss ideas for spurring employment.

Summers said attacking unemployment is an essential element in reducing the deficit.

“Putting people back to work, bringing employment back to normal levels, that’s also going to be the single largest factor in bringing down the federal budget deficit,” Summers said.

The unemployment rate rose to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level since 1983.

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