US financial markets have improved: Fed Reserve chief

New Delhi: The chairman of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke has expressed hopes that the country's economy will turn up later this year.

"We continue to expect economic activity to bottom out, then to turn up later this year. Key elements of this forecast are our assessments that the housing market is beginning to stabilise and that the sharp inventory liquidation that has been in progress will slow over the next few quarters," said Bernanke.

“Conditions in a number of financial markets have improved in recent weeks, reflecting in part the somewhat more encouraging economic data,” he concluded.