U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, says the American economy is suffering through what he is calling a "severe contraction."

In testimony prepared for the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, Bernanke pledged to use all available tools to lift the U.S. out of the recession, which already has cost millions of Americans their jobs.

He said the economy was likely to keep shrinking in the first six months of this year.

Bernanke predicted that the current recession would end this year, but warned there were significant risks to that forecast.

Ben Bernanke, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, said, "To break the adverse feedback loop, it is essential that we continue to complement fiscal stimulus with strong government action to stabilize financial institutions and financial markets. If actions taken by the administration, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve are successful in restoring some measure of financial stability and only if that is the case, in my view, there is a reasonable prospect that the current recession will end in 2009 and that 2010 will be a year of recovery."

(CCTV February 25, 2009)