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Creation Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2009 GMT

Bernanke: US recession likely over

The chairman of the US Federal Reserve has said that the country's recession "is very likely over" but that the economy will probably take some time to heal fully.

Ben Bernanke's comments appeared to be backed up on Tuesday by August retail sales data that indicated the fastest growth in three and a half years.

Bernanke said on Tuesday that the US economy would probably grow in the third quarter of 2009, two years after the downturn began.

"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 as many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was," he said in Washington.

"So that's a challenge for us and policymakers going forward."

Bernanke's address to the Brookings Institution came a year after Lehman Brothers collapsed.

The failure of the US investment bank is widely considered to have sparked panic in the global financial markets which in turn deepened the severity of the worldwide recession.