A healing process in financial markets seems to be underway and it is reasonable to expect some growth late this year and next in the United States, Paul Volcker, an economic adviser to the Obama administration, said on Thursday.

The prospects for a really strong recovery, typical of most recessions, seem unlikely, Volcker told a meeting of the Institute of International Finance in Beijing.

"A long slog, with continuing high levels of unemployment, seems to be in store," Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said.

"This is not an environment in which inflationary pressures are at all likely for some time to come," he added.