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US economic recovery to ‘take a while’: Geithner
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that “it is going to take a while” for the economy to recover from recession while noting "important signs of some stability."
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that “it is going to take a while” for the economy to recover from recession while noting "important signs of some stability."
He cited rises in consumer spending and easing credit conditions but cautioned that "it took us a long time to get into this, and it's going to take us a lot to get out of this still. “So these were important signs of some stability. They're the necessary steps for recovery to begin but ... this is going to take a while,” Geithner said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
Geithner also said the pace of the U.S. economic decline was slowing, even as the economy still faced enormous uncertainty."The pace of decline is slowing, here and around the world. And there are some places where we're seeing things starting to improve, but the main thing is a sense of stability," he said.
Geithner has assured that no US bank screened by regulators faces the risk of insolvency, giving markets another reason to rally after encouraging US jobs and European services data.
Geithner, speaking ahead of the release of the results of bank stress tests, said, "None of those 19 banks are at risk for insolvency.”
His comments came a day after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the US economy could rebound later this year, referring to recent data suggesting that the pace of economic contraction might be slowing.
