US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the US economy has suffered a lot of damage in the current downturn and it's going to take time before it fully recovers.

In an interview for broadcast on Sunday, Geithner told NBC's "Meet the Press" that creating jobs and regaining the confidence of investors will be the real test of recovery.

Recent encouraging news in the economy, he said, "shows that — when you act with force — you can stabilize a crisis like this."

"But this is going to be a different recovery than in the past because Americans are going to have to save more. A lot of damage was caused by this crisis. It's going to take some time for us to grow out of this.

"It could be a little choppy. It could be uneven. And it's going to take awhile," Geithner said.

He noted that he's seeing encouraging signs, but declined to say whether the recession is technically over, saying economists will figure that out later.NBC released an excerpt of the interview late Saturday.