Clinton and Trump spar on economy and jobs

Hempstead (US): Democratic presidential nominee Hillary

Clinton

and her Republican counterpart Donald

Trump

today sparred over

economy

and creating new

jobs

, in their first face-off in a nationally televised presidential

debate

ahead of US polls.

Trump claimed that the US is being used as a piggy bank to rebuild China.

"Our jobs are fleeing the country. They're going to Mexico. They're going to many other countries. You look at what China is doing to our country in terms of making our product.

"They're devaluing their currency, and there's nobody in our government to fight them. And we have a very good fight. And we have a winning fight.

"Because they're using our country as a piggy bank to rebuild China, and many other countries are doing the same thing," Trump said.

The real estate tycoon from New York said there is need to stop jobs from being stolen from the US.

"We have to stop our companies from leaving the United States and, with it, firing all of their people," he said.

"We cannot let it happen. Under my plan, I'll be reducing taxes tremendously, from 35 per cent to 15 per cent for companies, small and big businesses.

"That's going to be a job creator like we haven't seen since Ronald Reagan. It's going to be a beautiful thing to watch," Trump said.

Clinton, the first woman to appear on the stage of the presidential debate, disagreed.

"I think that trade is an important issue. Of course, we are 5 per cent of the world's population; we have to trade with the other 95 per cent. And we need to have smart, fair trade deals," she said.

"We also, though, need to have a tax system that rewards work and not just financial transactions. And the kind of plan that Donald has put forth would be trickle-down economics all over again.

"In fact, it would be the most extreme version, the biggest tax cuts for the top per cent of the people in this country than we've ever had.

"I call it trumped-up trickle-down, because that's exactly what it would be. That is not how we grow the economy," she said.