U.S. President Barack Obama and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke met in the Oval Office on Wednesday to discuss the U.S. and global economic situation.

According to a White House statement, they were joined by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, White House chief of staff Bill Daley and top White House economist Gene Sperling. It was the third time Obama has met with Bernanke this year.

On Tuesday, the Fed announced that it would keep the historic low interest rates at least through mid-2013. The news had boosted the stock market but the gains were wiped out on Wednesday as investors are worrying about U.S. economic prospect.

U.S. economy, which grew only 1.3 percent in the second quarter this year after a 0.4 percent gain in the first, is not expected to grow faster than 2.5 percent in the second half of the year.

Moreover, its worsening debt burden and less effective policy making mechanism has caused downgrade of the world's largest economy for the first time in history.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet