Washington (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama said the weak economy in the United States could be blamed partially on international events and natural disasters, such as the March 11 earthquake in Japan.

“That’s part of the reason that people are so frustrated with what’s been going on in this town,” Obama told reporters in the Rose Garden on Tuesday.

“In the last few months, the economy has already had to absorb an earthquake in Japan, the economic headwinds coming from Europe, the Arab Spring and the [rise] in oil prices -- all of which have been very challenging for the recovery. But these are things we couldn’t control.”

Obama delivered the speech with two large teleprompters set some distance from the podium, obscuring reporters’ views. The teleprompter is usually on the dais where the president is speaking.

“Our economy didn’t need Washington to come along with a manufactured crisis to make things worse -- that was in our hands,” Obama said. “It’s pretty likely that the uncertainty surrounding the raising of the debt ceiling -- for both businesses and consumers -- has been unsettling, and just one more impediment to the full recovery that we need. And it was something that we could have avoided entirely.”

The March 11 earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan triggered several destructive tsunami waves that, in some areas, traveled several miles inland. More than 15, 600 Japanese people were killed by the natural disaster.