Stock indexes worldwide rose on Friday, after US bank chief <name>Ben Bernanke</name> said that the US economy was starting to recover from the recession.

Addressing a conference in Wyoming, the bank chief said that "the prospects for a return to growth in the near term appear good."

He added, however, that "the economic recovery is likely to be relatively slow at first, with unemployment declining only gradually from high levels."

The British FTSE index rose about two percent, closing at 4,851. The French Cac index gained 3.1% and the German Dax 2.8%.

"<name>Bernanke</name> was a little bit more bullish than most people were expecting. He's saying that the global economy is starting to emerge from the recession and that the fears of a financial collapse have receded substantially," said <name>Jacob Oubina</name>, the currency strategist of Forex.com.

<name>Jean-Claude Trichet</name>, the European Central Bank president, warned that talk of a complete recovery might be premature. "I am a little bit uneasy when I see that, because we have some green shoots here and there, we are already saying, 'well, after all, we are close to back to normal,' " he said.