US presidential nominees shouldn't use growth plans to win votes

After former Florida governor Jeb Bush said last month that he would make achieving 4 percent economic growth his top goal if elected US president, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Monday that she would build a "growth and fairness economy" if elected to the White House.

The two presidential candidates should be applauded for trying to re-ignite the world's largest economy. But taking concrete steps to boost the growth of the real economy is easier said than done.

At a time when the world economy is yet to step out of the long shadow cast by the 2008 global financial crisis, it is reassuring to see economic growth taking central stage at the start of the campaign for the 2016 presidential election.