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What prevented the Asian crisis from becoming a full-scale global economic downturn has been the astonishing US economy.
正是由于美国经济的惊人增长，才阻止了亚洲金融危机演变成全球范围的经济衰退。
Its relentless growth helped the rest of the world by purchasing more and more of their exports. Since 1996, the US current-account deficit in its balance of payments—the broadest measure of the country's international trade—has more than doubled, from $129 billion to an estimated total of $330 billion in 1999.
美国经济的持续增长使它能越来越多地购买其他国家的出口产品，这样也有助于这些国家的经济发展。从1996年起，美国国际收支往来账目赤字——这是衡量一个国家国际贸易最全面的指标——从1，290亿美元上升到1999年的大约3，300亿美元，翻了一番还多。
The world economy, as Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has repeatedly said, has been flying on one engine. The trouble is, as Mr. Summers has also warned, this cannot go on forever.
正如美国财政部部长劳伦斯·萨默斯多次强调的，世界经济是靠一个引擎在飞行。但同时萨默斯先生警告说，问题在于这种情况不能够永远持续下去。
The great danger is that the world has become too dependent on American prosperity and that a slowdown or recession—reflecting a decline in the stock market, a loss of consumer confidence or higher interest rates—might snowball into an international slump.
巨大的危险在于世界太过于依赖美国经济的繁荣，所以一旦美国经济出现减速或衰退——反映在股市的下跌、消费者信心的丧失或利率较高等方面——就会像滚雪球般发展成为全球范围的经济衰退。
By economic forecasts, Europe and Japan are going to do better. In 2000, the European Union's gross domestic product will grow 2.8 percent, up from 2.1 percent in 1999, according to projections by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. Japan is projected to grow 1.4 percent, the same as the OECD is predicting for 1999 but a big improvement from the 2.8 percent drop in 1998.
根据经济预测，欧洲和日本经济走势会更好。另据总部设在巴黎的经济合作与发展组织（OECD）的预测，2000年欧盟的国内生产总值将增长2.8%，而1999年增长了2.1%。日本的国内生产总值预计将增长1.4%，与经济合作与发展组织对1999年的预测一致，但相对于1998年2.8%的下滑而言已是一个很大的进步。
