The U.S. central bank is poised to provide additional stimulus efforts if the U.S. economy remains sluggish, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday.

Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke testifies before the US House Financial Services Committee on Fed's Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, July 13, 2011.  (Xinhua/Zhang Jun)
The U.S. economy has continued to recover, but the pace of the expansion so far this year has been modest, Bernanke said in his twice-a-year economic report to Congress.

"The possibility remains that the recent economic weakness may prove more persistent than expected and that deflationary risks might reemerge, implying a need for additional policy support," his report said.

Bernanke maintained that temporary factors, such as high food and gas prices, have slowed the economy. He said those factors should ease in the second half of the year and growth should pick up. But if that forecast proves wrong, he said the Fed is prepared to do more.

Even with the federal funds rate close to zero, the central bank still has a number of tools to ease financial conditions, Bernanke told lawmakers during his first day of the two-day Capitol Hill testimony.

"One option would be to provide more explicit guidance about the period over which the federal funds rate and the balance sheet would remain at their current levels. Another approach would be to initiate more securities purchases or to increase the average maturity of our holdings," he said.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet