US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has said the latest figures on housing and consumer spending suggest a rapid decline in the US economy could be easing.
'Recently we have seen tentative signs that the sharp decline in economic activity may be slowing, for example, in data on home sales, homebuilding and consumer spending, including sales of new motor vehicles,' Bernanke said.
His remarks, released on the Fed's website, were due to be delivered at a speech in Atlanta later in the day.
Calling the current financial crisis the worst since the Great Depression, Bernanke explained the litany of emergency measures taken by the central bank and the Treasury Department with the aim of restoring battered credit markets.
Bernanke said such efforts were continuing, but added that some of the programmes might one day have to be removed in order to prevent all the stimulus from building into an outright threat of inflation.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama said his economic measures were starting to work. In a speech on his administration's economic recovery effort, Mr Obama said moves to recapitalise banks, strengthen the housing market and rescue the car sector were 'necessary pieces of the recovery puzzle'. But he also said any recovery would take time
Surprise slide in March US sales
US data released separately today was less encouraging about the US economy, however. Official figures showed that US retail sales dropped by a surprise 1.1% in March after two months of gains. The fall came amid rising unemployment and worries about job security. Analysts had forecast a 0.3% rise in March.
The Commerce Department raised its estimates of previous months' sales, however. The department said retail sales rose a revised 0.3% in February, instead of a 0.1% decline, and gained 1.9% in January, compared with the previous 1.8% figure. On an annual basis, March sales were 9.4% lower than in March 2008.
Separate Labor Department figures showed that US wholesale prices unexpectedly dropped 1.2% in March, surpassing analysts' expectations of a 0.1% rise.
Compared with the same period last year, producer prices were 3.5% lower, the largest decline since a 3.9% fall in 1950. Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy costs, were unchanged in March.
Energy prices turned down by 5.5% last month after rising 1.3% in February. They were 25.4% lower on an annual basis.
