US President George W Bush and his advisers are keeping close watch on the financial markets and believe the economy's fundamentals are strong, the White House said today.
The president is spending the weekend at his family's estate in the US state of Maine after a rocky week for markets around the world.
'I can assure you that there are many of the president's advisers who are keeping a very close eye on all of the market activity and making sure that policies are put in place to keep our economy strong and growing,' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.
Asked whether the president himself was closely monitoring the situation, Ms Perino said: 'I can assure that on any issue, especially an issue like this, the president would get regular updates.'
It was revealed this week that banks and hedge funds have been exposed to investments in America's subprime mortgage market (RTÉ.ie Business journalist Mary McCarthy has more on subprime lending).
The cheap credit has fueled economic growth in recent years, but these new developments could bring it to an end.
The US Federal Reserve said earlier today that it stood ready to provide emergency funds to banks if needed after it injected $35bn (€25bn) in reserves into the banking system in two separate operations.
Central banks worldwide have now injected at least €236bn in the past 48 hours to prevent markets from spinning into a global liquidity crunch.
The Iseq index lost €4.5bn today.
