PROVIDENCE – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said today the recession has probably ended but warned that the unemployment rate may remain high because of lackluster growth, Bloomberg News reported.
“Even though from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over at this point, it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time,” Bernanke told a questioner at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
“Unemployment will be slow to come down” if growth turns out to be “moderate,” Bernanke added.
The chairman’s remarks came as a report out today showed retail sales rose last month at the fastest pace in three years, partly thanks to the “Cash for Clunkers” car rebate program.
The current recession began in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in Cambridge, the private nonprofit that officially defines the duration of downturns. If the NBER eventually finds the recession continued past April, it will be the longest since the Great Depression.
