U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner speaks during a luncheon hosted by Newsweek magazine.[Xinhua]

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday that the American economy is stabilizing despite some difficulties ahead.

"There's more stability. The pace of decline in most measures of economic activity have slowed quite a lot, and that's an important beginning," said Geithner in a luncheon hosted by Newsweek magazine.

"You're seeing some improvements in credit markets. Some markets are thawing, easier for people to issue, to borrow. Costs of credit are coming down," he noted.

But the Treasury chief also warned that the current crisis is "the most challenging economic crisis that this country has seen in generations."

"It took a long time for these problems to build up," he said. "It's going to take time for us to work through them."

"I think even as growth starts to turn positive -- which will happen -- unemployment is going to keep increasing for a while," said Geithner. "And it's not going to feel -- it's not going to feel better for a long time for millions of Americans."

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2009)