The U.S. economic recovery has continued at a moderate pace but the jobs situation remains "far from satisfactory," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will tell lawmakers on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning.

"With unemployment still high and declining only gradually, and with inflation running below the Committee's longer-run objective, a highly accommodative monetary policy will remain appropriate for the foreseeable future," Bernanke said in prepared remarks ahead of his semi-annual testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services.

Bernanke was vague about the time line for scaling back the Fed's $85 billion a month bond buying plan, but said he expects the program will be reduced by year's end. However, he assured the asset purchases will be wound down gradually so as to not derail the fragile economic recovery.

"I emphasize that, because our asset purchases depend on economic and financial developments, they are by no means on a preset course," he said..

"If the outlook for employment were to become relatively less favorable, if inflation did not appear to be moving back toward 2%, or if financial conditions — which have tightened recently — were judged to be insufficiently accommodative to allow us to attain our mandated objectives, the current pace of purchases could be maintained for longer."

Although Bernanke warned that federal spending cuts might restrain economic growth over the next few quarters, his colleagues at the Fed still see GDP growth stepping up during the second half of this year, eventually reaching a pace between 2.9 and 3.6 percent in 2015.

They now project the unemployment rate to decline to between 5.8 and 6.2 percent by the final quarter of 2015.

Bernanke will deliver the remarks to the House Committee at 10:30 am ET. He will then face questions from representatives on the health of the economy and the Fed's outlook for monetary policy.

RTTNews