The head of the US central bank has described the country's economic situation as far from satisfactory.
Speaking to a gathering of central bankers and academics in Wyoming, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the bank would take additional action as needed to promote a stronger recovery.
In particular, he suggested that the Fed may pump more money into the economy via so-called quantitative easing.
The Fed calls such measures asset purchases, where the central bank buys bonds to keep the long-term cost of borrowing down, the BBC reports.
The US central bank has tried to support the economy by quantitative easing - buying in $US2.3tn in bonds in two rounds.
The last round of asset purchases ended last year. Many analysts believe the Fed will launch more bond-buying later this year, in a process referred to as QE3.
